From the Pulpit - Sermon Audio

The gospel can progress even in the most pagan of environments.

We must pray persistently and not give up because God is kind and just.

John’s disciples had to be saved, and then they were.

The sudden and catastrophic coming of Christ’s Kingdom means we must not be distracted by worldly attachments or false christs.

The kingdom of God is entirely wrapped up in His Son.

Apollos is an example to us of someone who knows the Bible well and teaches it enthusiastically.

True faith in God glorifies Him by giving thanks.

Make the most of every ministry opportunity.

Jesus is the Son of God come to earth to rescue you.

Develop a lively, forgiving faith by which you happily serve God and take care not to cause others to stumble.

God keeps his promises and is still working to save souls.

God expects us to repent when we hear the testimony of the Bible.

God encourages bold ministry to continue because He has souls to save.

Let God’s Law search your heart instead of justifying yourself.

Christianity offers the only real solution to the problem of evil.

Paul discharged his God-given responsibility to preach the gospel. We must be involved in the same.

We must be faithful stewards for God.

: Sometimes, creative funding is required to do gospel ministry, and partners are always a great help.

Jesus rebukes the attitude that rejects sinners and commends loving them and rejoicing when they repent.

These three responses mirror what you will hear today if you evangelize.

Being a Christian means you put the Lord Jesus first in all things.

Every person must repent of their idolatry and turn to God.

God wishes to fill His kingdom, but many people refuse His invite.

From the book 'Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices' by Thomas Brooks

We must not worship idols, nor worship God in ignorance!

Jesus teaches his followers three important character traits.

We must not worship idols, nor worship God in ignorance!

Threats did not stop Jesus, and He still desires to save you.

We should be troubled by idolatry.

From this familiar passage, missionary Tom Gibbons calls us to radical dedication to Jesus Christ and His gospel in such a way that affects every area of our life. Tragically, too many who profess to know Christ have no intention of living that way. Tom credited Douglas McLachlan and his book Thirsting for Authenticity. We consider the motivation for radical dedication to Christ: the gospel mercies of God Paul explained in the prior 11 chapters of Romans make it right and proper for us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord.

The work of Jesus is the solution to the problem of evil within

We should be troubled by idolatry.

The parables of the mustard seed and leaven show how God's kingdom will have a thorough-going effect on both the world in an external fashion and upon its people by way of internal transformation. But the question hangs out there - who will be part of this kingdom? The Lord Jesus answers in a way less optimistic than the typical expectation today (that most people will be alright). He teaches that relatively few will be saved. Many will seek after it is too late, but only those known by the Lord, those who strive to enter the narrow gate, are the ones who are rescued into God's eternal kingdom.

In this part two of our mini-series on the problem of evil, we touched on several things. First, we discussed the importance of handling the issue fairly, including giving plausible explanations, and regardless of your view of the debate acknowledging explanations that are feasible. Second, we showed that it is not valid to demand our good God 'must' eliminate all evil. We understand that He has justified reason for permitting it, even if we cannot fully explain that reason. Then, we queried about natural evil: are certain natural events really evil if they do not harm anyone? And if they do harm a person, perhaps that harm was intended by God as judgment. Does that make God evil (Rom. 3:5-6)? Next we briefly considered evil as the absence of good, not a 'created thing' per se. Finally, we ended with a question that connects back to the first point: if you demand that God eliminate all evil, do you accept that you yourself will have to be eliminated since your sin is part of the problem of evil?

Christians should be just as energetic in their examination of the Scriptures as the Bereans were.

We must reject hypocritical excuses to avoid doing good.

Sound explanations exist to address the problems of evil.

God assigns judgment for those who bear no fruit.

The Philippian Jailer went from work as usual to despair to salvation, all in a night.

It is wrong to think of ourselves as “holier than thou” in comparison to other people.

The Christian can endure even painful persecution with prayer and song.

Consider your spiritual standing and make every effort to settle with God.

God wants us to use our hands for good in service to Him.

God opens the heart of the person who gets saved in order that they may heed the things of God.

The point in these verses is to lay out in simplest form God's pattern for producing unity and maturity in the church. God gives spiritual gifts to every believer to use in the church for its maturation; therefore, it is essential that each one does his or her part.

The Lord’s work requires of us careful discernment.

God wants us to use our hands for good in service to Him.

The Lord will suddenly return, bringing blessing and judgment with Him. So we must be faithful to His cause and ready for His return.

God guided Paul and Silas to a specific destination, but closed the door on two regions where they wished to go to preach the gospel.

Give first place to God’s kingdom and trust Him to provide for you.

God’s people are expected to love Him with their whole selves.

Paul did not allow the matter of circumcision to become a hindrance to the gospel. He also did not allow it to supplant the gospel. Instead, he took care of the matter with Timothy and then continued earnestly in the Great Commission. They saw God increase the membership of the churches and strengthen them in the faith.

Life is not about what you have; it is about what you give to God.

God’s people are expected to love Him with their whole selves.

This message addresses the apostle Paul's desire to revisit the churches that he had planted in his first missionary tour. Then, we discussed the unfortunate incident of the dispute between Paul and Barnabas about John Mark.

In the bigger picture, we must keep in mind the focal effort of our churches. While we combat false teaching, we also need to keep pushing out into the regions of darkness beyond to start churches and encourage and strengthen disciples. This is the normal operation of the church since the first century and it must continue until the Lord returns.

Jesus warns us about hypocrisy and teaches how to handle persecution without ourselves falling into hypocrisy.

God’s people are expected to love Him with their whole selves.

The church at Jerusalem, in consultation with the apostles, elders, and representatives of the church at Antioch, come to the correct understanding of the gospel and its requirements on Gentiles. They very clearly conclude that circumcision and law-keeping are not required of Gentile Christians, either to become Christians or to remain that way.

Jesus harshly criticizes externally-focused religion and highlights the critical importance of inner purity.

Sin warps our thinking; God helps us think well.

What is happening with the Gentiles is no surprise because for centuries God has been promising to provide salvation for the Gentiles. James points out that in Amos 9:11-15, God promised to raise up the royal house of David with beneficial effect toward the Gentiles. No surprise then that God would be working with Gentiles in the present age as well.

Jesus reveals the problem was not the lack of a sign, it was a problem in the spiritual life of those request the sign.

Church leaders and the church as a whole must work together to restate and defend the truth of God’s word.

John 12:41 informs us that Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord ... Jesus Christ! Let us remember that our Savior is holy, sinless, worthy of worship, and worthy of our life of service.

You need to evaluate your own response to the Lord Jesus. Are you like any of these responses—illogical, absurd, re-directing, misdirecting, professing to be neutral, not caring about the word of God or obeying it? Or are you like a wise man who hears what Jesus says and obeys it (Luke 6:46-49, Matt. 7:24)?

Are you persistent in prayer, or lazy in prayer? Do you truly trust in God’s goodness or just pay it lip service?

Pastor Postiff addresses a number of questions including one about the Great Harlot in Revelation 17-19, unity of believers in a denominational world, a question about the kings of Judah and Israel, and whether Romans 2:14-16 allows for some people to be judged on a basis other than their relationship to Jesus Christ.

Psalm 88 is a personal lament. The psalmist's prolonged affliction has left him feeling alone and abandoned like the dead. His concern is that in death there is no opportunity to declare God's glory among the living. Therefore, the psalmist persistently cries out to God for deliverance. We learn from the psalmist that when in the pit of prolonged affliction, believers should persistently pray for God’s deliverance with a view toward declaring God’s glory.

A. The model prayer, or any prayer for that matter that is patterned after it, is of no value if the heart of the person praying it is not walking with God. “If I cherish iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (loose quotation of Psalm 66:18). B. The question and the Lord’s answer concern private, individual prayer. The Lord is not talking about public prayer offered in a gathered worship service. That topic is addressed elsewhere in Scripture (1 Cor. 11:4-13, 14:13-17; 1 Thess. 5:17, 5:25; 1 Tim. 2:1-8). Paul in particular gives reports about the content of his prayers. I do not believe those things violate the Lord’s prohibition about public prayer in Matthew 6 because Paul is not giving the prayer report to seek praise from people as the Pharisees were doing. He is giving the report to edify and encourage the church. Those who pray publicly in church also must pray with similar motivation. We also see examples of the first church praying together in Acts 1:14, 4:24-31, 12:12, 13:3, 14:23, 20:36, 21:5, 27:29. C. The model prayer gives us a template, an outline if you will, that shows our focus in all things it to be heavenward—toward God as holy Father, toward God’s kingdom and will, toward God’s provision, toward God’s mercy in forgiveness, with respect to our similar godly attitude toward others, and toward holiness in our conduct. D. The model prayer does not accomplish its design if we do not pray very much or often.

In myself: A. Repent. Confess any sin. Ask God to help you think better in the future, more carefully, more truly, etc. In others: B. Do not treat the failed person with malice, harsh judgement, ill will, lack of love, lack of mercy, etc. C. Love covers a multitude of sins. D. Gently ask the person to explain their thinking, and if truly he is not “thinking well” then ask him to amend his ways. If there is a pattern of sin, expose that as a help to the brother or sister so they will break that pattern. E. Be quick to forgive.

This reminds us of several truths that we need to really engage with: 1. Paul and his missionary team were doing exactly what the Great Commission told them to do. 2. The Great Commission is not just about preaching the gospel, but doing the next steps – making disciples, maturing disciples, organizing disciples into churches with pastors. The Great Commission requires more of us than to only share the gospel. There is also required continued teaching, encouragement, warning, and establishing of local churches with qualified leadership. 3. Our church’s missions program needs to be focused on this kind of work—since that is what the Great Commission is! Social programs are not missions. If we keep that clear, we have the start of a good foundation to go forward in our missionary program. 4. Our local church ministries and programs need to be focused on making disciples, not just doing things for things’ sake.

One other thing: remember that Martha was trying to serve the Lord Jesus. And there is nothing wrong with that when considered in isolation from everything else. But when the activities and programs of your church life become frenetic and you begin to complain, the making of disciples has become secondary. The problem is one of proportion and priority. Our focus should be to become like Jesus by being with Him. Church is not about programs and activities. It is about people becoming like Jesus Christ. Some churches need to reduce their activities and programs and take some time to focus. I am not certain we need to do that, because many of us are not crazy busy with church stuff most of the time. But we need to be clear on our priority: being like Jesus by being with Him more.

Thinking is a very personal thing. I cannot get into your head. Only you know what is there (1 Cor. 2:11). But you can tell other people what is there. And God knows what is in there! Jesus came to rescue us from every evil deed and thought. Moreover, He through the Word of God and the Spirit of God helps His people to think good. Apart from Him you cannot succeed in thinking good.

A main idea from the book of Acts is the work of the Spirit in the early Christians to propagate the gospel and start new churches. In Acts 13 and 14 record the first forays into the Gentile world with the gospel. We are to continue teaching the same kinds of things they did, starting churches like they did, ministering to people like they did, refusing idolatrous worship like they did, dealing with persecution like they did, etc. God will ensure that His word makes the progress He wants it to make. People will be saved and transformed.

To whom should you be neighbor? To all kinds of people. To those who are downtrodden, despised, rejected, marginalized, and hated. To the poor and addicts. To those victimized by sin and confused by all the immoral messages that are shouted from the rooftops. To those who need some extra cash, to those who are depressed, to those who are grumpy, to your family members! To homeless and abused children and people walking down the sidewalk. To Jews. To foreigners, refugees, illegal immigrants. To people of the political movement that you despise. But the focus is not ultimately on them. It is on you. Are you a love-your-neighbor type? Or do you pick and choose who your neighbors are?

I have been focusing on 'thinking no evil' in relation to other people. There is plenty of opportunity to consider another entire avenue, and that is plain old evil thoughts related to ourselves and our own sins, not in relation to other people. But we cannot do that now. Jesus came to rescue us from our own thoughts. He did not only pay for our sins to offer us forgiveness and a right standing with God. He also died so that we might be delivered from iniquity. And not just sin of deeds, but sins of thoughts as well. He does indeed want us to 'think no evil.' With His help, we can restrain our musings about other people’s wrong and refocus on things that are godly.

Follow the apostolic example (1 Cor. 11:1, Philippians 3:17): Speak boldly for Christ. Do not give up in the face of opposition. In fact, expect it and know that some will be poisoned against you. Leave when you have to. Go on to new territory if the old is closed or already covered by other sound ministries.

We who are Christians have the blessing and joy of salvation in Christ, and of the revealed knowledge of God and His coming kingdom, as well as all that we read about Jesus Christ in the Bible—even more than the disciples had! This brings a huge responsibility to us. The world has enjoyed a great era since Christ came—an age in which his teachings have been proclaimed throughout the world and spread to the unknown world through the efforts of Christians and churches. We today are blessed with revealed truth from heaven like no time in history. We must not take that privilege for granted, but rather make the most of it. We most certainly must not reject it, lest we fall into the same judgment as the cities rejected of Jesus.

Thoughts evoked by this message on the gospel of Jesus Christ: An inclusive message – for all, Jews or Gentiles. A rejoicing message - joy out of hopelessness. An attractive message – many people want to hear it. An off-putting message – many do not like the new, different aspect of it. A polarizing message – some receive and many reject. A growing message – through positive testimony and negative persecution. A saving message – as opposed to going before God unjustified. A transforming message – forgiveness and life out of sin and death. A condemning message – shaking the dust off.

Previously, He had told the disciples that if someone receives them, they will receive the Lord, and if they receive the Lord, they will receive the Father as well (Matt. 10:40). So, if the city were favorable to his messengers, then Jesus could expect something of a favorable response to His further ministry in the city. But if the city had already rejected the disciples, it was not going to receive Him and He may have skipped a stop and spent more time on fertile ground. You might say, 'If only Jesus were here, He would get them to believe.' Not necessarily, dear evangelist. For if they do not receive you, they will not receive Him either. In fact, when you are sharing His word, Jesus is there by His Spirit. He can do everything that He could do if He were physically present. So, trust Him, and share His message with people.

Our teacher, James Widgeon, opens his teaching series on Jeremiah's Lamentations.

Thoughts evoked by this message on the gospel of Jesus Christ: An inclusive message – for all, Jews or Gentiles. A rejoicing message - joy out of hopelessness. A polarizing message – some receive and many reject. A growing message – through positive testimony and negative persecution. A saving message – as opposed to going before God unjustified. A transforming message – forgiveness and life out of sin and death. A condemning message – shaking the dust off.

Jesus knew the cost of totally following God; He may have left His earthly father at the end of his life; He did not stay with his mother and left His brothers and sisters behind and did not spend the last few years with them. Do you hesitate to believe in Jesus because of ties to this world? Because of the potential costs to your lifestyle, friends, etc.? But what about when confronted with the command, 'Follow Me'? Do you rank Jesus higher than all that? Do you honor Him with more honor than all those things that could draw you away from Him? This kind of teaching caused many people to turn away from Jesus during His ministry. They might say, 'If that is what He is asking, I am out!' What he offers is certainly not palatable to our sinful natures. But what He gives is so much better than all that. You might leave 10 friends today, but you will gain 1,000 more in eternity future, and a sizable number today as well! You might lose some measure of closeness with family, but you will gain family far beyond in size and closeness (Mark 10:29-30).

In this second part of our message on Israel, we explain a moderate Christian approach to the nation of Israel. We do not advocate blind support for Israel in all its activities or beliefs, nor do we advocate for special disapproval upon Israel. Notes are available here.

Thoughts evoked by this message on the gospel of Jesus Christ: An inclusive message – for all, Jews or Gentiles. A rejoicing message - joy out of hopelessness. A polarizing message – some receive and many reject. A growing message – through positive testimony and negative persecution. A saving message – as opposed to going before God unjustified. A transforming message – forgiveness and life out of sin and death. A condemning message – shaking the dust off.

We studied Hebrews regarding the Christian's altar, a metaphor for the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.

John and the others learned here from the Lord the character traits of sacrifice, love, gentleness, and meekness. Jesus dealt with their hubris and put it into its place three times. Humility yields a true kind of tolerance—a compassionate love for those who are victims of sin and slaves of darkness. Godly meekness ignores slights, leaves vengeance to the Lord, uses power and strength to serve others instead of destroy them.

In this part one of our study on Israel, we focused on the history of the nation as to its residency in the land known as Canaan, Israel, Judea, or Palestine. Pastor Postiff laid out the Biblical history and then presented a timeline of events from secular history. This background helps us to understand the current conflicts in the region. This is a hot topic these days, and to avoid misunderstanding, notes are available here.

Paul went where a crowd was gathered and preached the gospel to them. Let us do that too. He started 'where the audience was' and took them to Jesus.

Paul went where a crowd was gathered and preached the gospel directly to the crowd. Let’s do that too. He started 'where the audience was' and took them to Jesus.

Think on this again: just like the Transfiguration gave way to the suffering of the world, here again the glory of the Messiah in healing a young boy is resonating with the crowd while at the exact same moment the Messiah is explaining that He will lower Himself even more than He has already. He came in fashion as a man; but that was not enough. For He then humbled Himself to the point of betrayal by His own people and death at the hands of the Romans, even death on a cross. He would lower Himself one step further, to be placed in a tomb that did not belong to Him. He is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, and every beast in every forest, the creator of earth and all its fullness, the stars, and galaxies from one end of the heavens to the other end 93 billion light years distant. And he owned no spot of ground to rest his head, or even to be buried. Yet He was raised the third day because He is the author of life, and it was not possible that death could hold Him! This juxtaposition highlights the height of the exaltation of Jesus Christ alongside the depth of the humiliation. The contrast shows that Jesus is worthy of all majesty. He is worthy of worship in His humblest moment, and in His most glorious. I beseech you to give Him His due recognition. He deserves all of it. And no matter how difficult your case seems to be, our Lord can take care of it like He cared for the child.

Acts 13:13-22 Preaching in the Synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia

Acts 13:23-41 Preaching the Gospel in Antioch of Pisidia

I wonder if the Transfiguration served a purpose other than to show Jesus as glorious king and revealer of God’s will. Could it be the answer to the Lord’s prayer on the mountain that night? Perhaps the Father showed approval of His son by glorifying Him and making a proclamation of His Son’s eminent worthiness prior to His suffering, the path of which would begin in earnest in Luke 9:51.

Regular spiritual cleanup is needed in our lives. Jesus is the master cleaner, but we join His work.

We call this work missions, from the title Great Commission. It is more direct to say that such work is evangelism and church planting. Whatever you call it, the teaching the word of the Lord to new areas is a necessity for the Christian church. Such work faces opposition from the devil and his agents. But we can trust God to protect and help us through.

We come back then to the resurrection of Jesus. Christians believe— with utter certainty and conviction—that Jesus died and then on the third day rose again from the dead. This is not a guess or wishful thinking. It did truly happen. All the propaganda in the world cannot change that fact, yet that is what non-Christian people have been trying to do for centuries. Your mind is its own built-in propagandist, attempting to get around the truth about Jesus. But the implications of His resurrection are enormous. If you are not a Christian, the event of the resurrection calls for serious examination. If Jesus arose from the dead, it would seem to me from your perspective that there is a much higher likelihood that the Bible is true; that what Jesus taught is true; that what Christians have been saying for centuries is true; that Heaven is real; that Hell is dreadfully real; that all of us will face Jesus as judge; and all that is true despite some hang-ups or un-answered questions that you might have.

Therefore, I do not see a need to 'abandon' the traditional or common view. If we do not divide the Trinity or posit some other strange happening, we can say that God the Son was estranged from God the Father for a moment in time.

Notice that the church gave up some of its spiritually gifted people and their gifts to reproduce other churches in other areas of the Roman empire. This left holes in the ministry, but they still had no lack of prophets and teachers to carry on the local ministry of Antioch. God called Saul and Barnabas. He may well do the same to someone who is hearing these words!

Christians happily acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord: “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5). “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:11). “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10). That is what Christians do. We do not quibble about whether He is Lord because He is. Instead, we try to learn how we can best follow Him and best love Him and keep His commands and learn His teachings and implement them in our daily lives. We know by this that our lives will be better, the world will be better, Christ will be pleased, and we will get good marks at our final judgment at His throne.

Emphasize in your minds the early church’s example of prayer. It is amazing. Think on what they learned from Jesus. Let us ask the Father to help us do likewise.

What can we glean from this portion? These three sections do not seem to naturally fall under a single heading. 1. The disciples, although sent to the house of Israel only on this occasion, were doing something like what we are called to do: preach the kingdom of God. We ought to know a little bit about that kingdom and the basics of the faith that we share with the world. 2. Herod is just a bad character, a villain, a pattern for all the ungodly rulers in the world. 3. Jesus took what little the disciples could produce and increased it tremendously. He can do a similar thing for your and my meager spiritual abilities so that we can do meaningful things for God and have a good impact on people around us.

Learn from the example of these people ... Evangelism, Encouragement, Example, Edification, Determination, many people became Christians. God can do the same among us today.

and also Acts 12:1-24, Persecution, Round 4 (just the first section covered this evening)

Take note of the similarities in the two situations: both 12 years, both unclean, both falling down before Jesus, both called 'daughter,' both accounts give prominence to faith, both have touch, and both are immediate healings.

Once you are baptized, and if you are truly serious about being a Christian, your spiritual life will grow and grow. You will accelerate and take off. This is not because some magic happened while you were in the water. Progress follows because you have made a serious-minded decision to be obedient to Christ. After all He did for you and all He gave for you through a simple transaction of faith, the least you can do for Him is to show Him your love by obeying His command to be baptized and to tell others the great things that God has done for you. And when you do that, God is pleased, others are happy for you, and you know you are doing God’s will. Nothing energizes our service for God more than that!

Asst. Pastor Lorch preached an encouraging message on Psalm 12.

If the ship had gone down, our salvation would have sunk with it. But there was nothing to worry about. Jesus demonstrated that He is the sovereign and supernatural ruler over nature. Jesus shows Himself to be that LORD with power over the stormy wind and waves. May we in faith give thanks to Him for His goodness in caring for us too.

In this lesson we examined objectives for parenting during various ages of a child's development, roughly 0-5, 5-12, and 13-18+. We also spent some time thinking about how to do a "parenting performance evaluation." We continue to use material from Ted Tripp's book Shepherding a Child's Heart.

Peter was in trouble with his Jewish friends because he went into a Gentile home and ate with Gentiles (10:28). This was not a "kosher" thing to do for a Jewish person. After explaining what happened, with the weight of a half-dozen eyewitnesses to the situation, Peter's Jewish friends were satisfied that God was doing His good work among the Gentiles too.

Our church family took some time to remember those who have lost a little one early in life. We hope you will be encouraged by the words shared in this recording.

Video is also available.

Not on the recording is the reading of Psalm 139:1-18.

The lamp’s lesson for us is that we must set forth our light to those around us. If our light is dark, how will our neighbors see the light of Christ? How we 'hear the light' is critical—like letting the seed grow instead of sitting in the freezer doing nothing! Our response will be tested at the judgment.

I thank God that God sent the good news through Jesus—and even included Gentiles.

In this sermon, Pastor Postiff covers the lengthy section of Luke 8:1-15. In these verses, Luke explains the Lord's co-workers and His itinerant preaching ministry. The main body of the message concerned the parable of the soils. The Lord illustrated the response to His teaching with three types of soils that produced no fruit, each representing a variation of an unsaved response to God's word. He illustrated a good and saving response to the Word of God by a fourth soil that produced much fruit.

We begin in this message to look at more specifics in terms of parenting very young children. Particularly, our goal is to help our young ones to become obedient, to honor and obey so that they will do well and live long on the earth.

I thank God that God sent the good news through Jesus—and even included Gentiles.

When she came to Jesus, she was in a state. She was grieved by her sin. She was repentant. She was troubled. Now, she had assurance directly from the Master that that she was saved. Her sins were cleansed. She could go in peace. It is safe to assume that she understood “and sin no more.”

Assistant Pastor Lorch continues to walk us through a statement of his doctrine as he prepares for his future ordination service, and reminds us of basic Christian truth.

Do you recognize God is right? And you are wrong? If so, you are right now ready to turn to Jesus and be saved. If you have doubts about Jesus, look carefully at the historical record of what He did. Connect it back to the prophecies about the Messiah and see how they were fulfilled in Him. Pray to God. Look at His words. Trust that Jesus will mercifully answer your need as He did for John the Baptist. He will not necessarily give you a better situation immediately, but He will strengthen your faith to keep going! And know that the praise you look for is not the praise of men (John 12:43), but the praise of the Son of God (like Romans 2:29). He will not forget all that you do for Him (Heb. 6:10). I trust that you do serve Him, not just in theory but in practice.

In this class we discussed some practical ways to draw out what your child is thinking. Our goal is correct behavior from a heart that loves God

Our assistant pastor is teaching us through the doctrines of the Bible. This is foundational material that every Christian ought to know.

We see fear and faith mixed in the response of the centurion. We see fear in the crowd, and no doubt Jesus’s miracles in both cases were the impetus for faith in some of the onlookers. Do you also fear Jesus and believe in Him to the saving of your soul?

We learn that Cornelius, though a man of faith, still had to be brought up to date with the latest developments about the gospel. Peter was sent to ensure that he had the critical and saving information.

In this message, Assistant Pastor Jansen Lorch explains his personal doctrinal statement on the doctrine of God the Father, and demonstrates where these truths are found in Scripture.

In response to His sermon then, or any sermon, do not presume to fix everyone else’s problems—rather you carefully consider your own ways and the ways of your family. You ask yourself if you are bearing good fruit or not. And you consider whether you are hearing and doing, or just hearing.

God teaches Peter that purity distinctions based on the old covenant food laws are to be set aside. Such laws cannot any longer be used to justify what we would today call "discrimination" because God cleansed the food, *and* he cleansed the people who partake of that food. The food itself need not be kosher and the food need not be prepared in a kosher manner for it to be received with prayer and thanksgiving.

In this Lord's Table message, Pastor Postiff urges us to examine our life stewardship (management) to evaluate how we are using our God-given resources to accomplish our God-assigned tasks in life. One angle we examined was whether we are stewarding our lives in such a way that we regularly attend the Lord's Table services at our church. Another angle is more general, exposed by asking this question: do we need to confess stewardship failures in any area of our life as we approach God to worship Him? Finally, we turned our focus away from ourselves toward Jesus, Who died for us and rose again so that we could be saved from sin.

We learn what Jesus teaches His followers about ethics, particularly in difficult situations with people who hate us and persecute us. Jesus urges us to love and pray and do good and give, especially when the recipient does not deserve it.

In Ezra 10:1-44, Ezra advises the Israelites to put away their pagan wives. Israel responded appropriately to this counsel.

We learn about a devout Gentile named Cornelius. God instructed him to call for Peter and hear the gospel from the apostle to the Jews. Chapter 10-11 mark off a kind of official welcome to Gentiles to be saved by faith in Christ.

Obviously, the Lord is highlighting the blessedness of the humble. His preaching, though it does not explicitly demand this kind of conduct, obviously is calling for us to be that way. We should pray to God to help us recognize our spiritual poverty, ask Him to give us an insatiable appetite for righteousness and to fill it, ask him to sustain us as we weep over things that grieve Him until the time of joy comes, and seek to persevere in persecution knowing that if it is for the Son of Man’s sake, it is eternally worthwhile.

In Ezra 10:1-44, Ezra advises the Israelites to put away their pagan wives. Israel responded appropriately to this counsel.

The church continues to expand during the time of peace after God stopped Paul's persecution of the church. Peter raised Dorcas (Tabitha) as yet another authenticating miracle.

Over the years, I have done a series of 'perspectives' messages on Christmas — Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, now the angels. This has helped us to have a wholistic and Biblical perspective on the birth of Jesus.

We cannot come to a doctrine like this and expect to 'bend' it into something that we can easily understand without effort. Just because it is difficult does not mean it is untrue. And furthermore, how is it that we expect the singular God of the Universe, and the unique God-man, to be something just like us? We are complex beings comprised of body and spirit; emotion and will; affections and desires; heart and mind. Our body alone is a machine of unparalleled complexity—a marvel of design mechanically and chemically. God is so much more than we are, so much higher, so infinite, so marvelous, that we cannot but expect His constitution to reach way beyond the limit of our understanding. Yet the blessed thing is that we can know Him through Jesus, and that knowing is eternal life (John 17:3)!

Paul's persecution was finally over and the church experienced a blessed time of growth. Miracles continued to be done through the hand of Peter.

Ezra confesses to God Israel's guilt and reflects upon God's upon past mercies despite the nation's sins.

Once again, the Lord Jesus was criticized for doing good on the Sabbath. We try in this message to make sure that our understanding of the Sabbath is Biblical, not based on the traditions of people or religious denominations. By extension, we need to evaluate our thinking on religious matters as a whole and make sure we are not living merely by tradition, but in fact we are honoring the word of God by obeying it.

Saul was changed completely 'overnight' on the road to Damascus, but God had quite some work to do on him over the following years before he was ready to be a missionary. But ready he became! Perhaps the years in which you find yourself right now are years of preparation for work that God has prepared for you later.

Let’s boil it down: we need to believe that God sent His Son as our Savior. God urges us to believe the truth that Jesus came to die for our sins and offer us the free light of life. Believe the truth that He came as a baby, He died as Savior, He rose again from the dead as Lord, and that He will reign as King. If you take this King as your own, you will be cleansed and your darkness will become light. And remember, soon the day will dawn and the daystar will arise over the entire earth, bringing comprehensive peace on earth and good will among mankind. The Lord Jesus will return and there will be a time of great joy to the world because the ancient wrongs will be righted and whatever is the best way to run a society will be the rule of the day. You can see that only if you are brought into the family of light which is under Jesus.

This is not a matter of preference, as if you can continue to enjoy the old wine without considering the new. It is a matter of 'genuine religion' and true morality. Jesus did not come to bring a new option. He brought a whole new system and urges you to come out of the old and into the new.

Assistant Pastor Lorch takes us through the section of his personal doctrinal statement having to do with God. Particulars about the Father, Son, and Spirit are left for later sessions.

Saul was changed completely 'overnight' on the road to Damascus, but God had quite some work to do on him over the following years before he was ready to be a missionary.

If you are a sinner, you need to get close to the Lord, not tell Him to get away! Peter told the Lord to get away (Luke 5:8). But the leper received a touch from the Lord (Luke 5:13) and the paralytic was brought near to receive help (Luke 5:18). These people did not necessarily come looking for the answer to their deepest need, but the Lord is gracious about that and supplied it anyway. Isolating yourself from the Lord and His people is not going to solve your problem!

Missionaries to Argentina

The more directly applicable part of this section is about Jesus’s teaching. 'I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also' Since He had to, we have to. As I have said oft before, we may not have all the same details he had, like the kingdom is immediately at hand. But we do have the same basic idea—unless one is born again by repentant faith, that one will not enter, experience, or enjoy the kingdom of God when it comes in the future. Jesus has 'all authority in heaven and on earth' (Matt. 28:19). He has delegated some of that to His church to carry on His work.

Self Control

Every good gift is from above, James 1:17. We certainly have enough “material” to abound in thanksgiving toward God (Colossians 2:6-7).

Check yourself. If you are getting hot under the collar right now because I told you that God views you as a sinner, then you are responding just like the hard-hearted audience of this passage. If you are angry at the messenger, what that really means is that you are rejecting God — because I am just recounting what Scripture says, and Scripture is God’s word, not mine. Please do not repeat the same error of these unbelieving synagogue goers. They were not very religious after all, were they? We know because they wanted to murder a man!

A real change was wrought in Saul’s heart. It was clear from the getgo that he was entirely transformed. God chose Saul. If you are a Christ-follower, God chose you too, before you knew it, and He purposed to transform you like He did Saul. He also purposed to have you do good works for Him (Eph. 2:10). We are indeed chosen to be forgiven, and chosen to serve Him. Will you be like Saul and say, 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision!' (Acts 26:19)?

Remove the miraculous and direct revelation elements from this account, and you have a story that that we should be replicating in our lives.

Check yourself. If you are getting hot under the collar right now because I told you that God views you as a sinner, then you are responding just like the hard-hearted audience of this passage. If you are angry at the messenger, what that really means is that you are rejecting God—because I am just recounting what Scripture says, and Scripture is God’s word, not mine. Please do not repeat the same error of these unbelieving synagogue goers. They were not very religious after all, were they? We know because they wanted to murder a man!

All the goodness at the end of the prophecy is tied to this truth: 'the LORD your God in your midst.' The repeated refrain throughout Scripture: God will be their God, and they will be His people. When God is near, there is no reason to fear or be weak. He will save and quiet you and rejoice over you with gladness and singing. This is true across the ages and will be the experience of all believers.

Satan left Jesus alone, but only for a little while. There would be many other temptations throughout His life, but God did not record most of them for us in Scripture. He did detail the internal and very human struggle of Jesus at Gethsemane. But then as in Luke 4, Jesus chose not to give in to the lure of personal comfort, instead committing to do God’s will, not His own. Jesus would be a perfect model of a God-fearing man.

Assistant Pastor Lorch takes us through the section of his personal doctrinal statement that has to do with Christian belief about the Bible.

Threats to the church include persecution as well as false belief and syncretism. These can expose the weakness either of discernment regarding false belief or an uncommitted stance toward Christ. Christians desire to pay close attention to their lives to see that they are characterized by the kinds of things we listed above. Two strengths of the church are the great joy of salvation and the unity of all believers regardless of their ethnic background. There are millions more opportunities for this to happen as we expand beyond our current borders and reach people who are lost.

Satan left Jesus alone, but only for a little while. There would be many other temptations throughout His life, but God did not record most of them for us in Scripture. He did detail the internal and very human struggle of Jesus at Gethsemane. But then as in Luke 4, Jesus chose not to give in to the lure of personal comfort, instead committing to do God’s will, not His own. Jesus would be a perfect model of a God-fearing man.

Put yourself back in the 27 AD. Would you take John’s baptism? In other words, would you associate yourself with his message of repentance, turning to God, and doing works befitting repentance? Would you humble yourself and participate with a man seen by the leadership of Israel as a strange bird (at best) or a lunatic? Would you repent of your sin, idolatry, covetousness, lust, blasphemy, filthy language, immorality, bad thoughts, etc. and admit your need for Jesus to cleanse you?

Case closed - the Jewish people have a historical pattern of rebellion against God and his messengers, and that it is no different at the present time because they have rebelled against God by rejecting Jesus and persecuting His followers. They prove the point by killing Stephen. Hasten to hear this - Gentiles are no different! People tend to be proud rebels—openly or quietly does not matter. With enough power at their disposal, people will do terrible things to other humans in their pursuit of godless self-autonomy.

For John, the first coming of the Messiah was a critical impetus for people to repent. The second coming is no less of a motivation for us today to prepare the way for Him by turning from sin to Christ and receiving forgiveness.

Stephen does not seem to be scared or anxious. He did not worry about what he was going to say (Matthew 10:19-20, Mark 13:11). To the contrary, he was sort of “glowing.” God gave some extraordinary appearance to Stephen so it would be even more evident that he was a messenger of God. In both gospel passages referenced, the outcome is those people would be delivered to death by their own brothers. As we know, that is what happened to Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr.

A major way to apply what we learn here is to strive to raise our children so that they are concerned about the things of God and that they experience God’s grace, wisdom, and a strong, discerning spirit. We need to be diligent to figure out how to build an environment where we cultivate this kind of young person. For one thing, we must be people who are concerned about the things of God and are serious about God’s grace and wisdom and discernment. We cannot cultivate that which we know nothing about!

If we believe like Simeon and live like him, we will do well. His standard was righteousness toward men and devoutness toward God. If we see Jesus as Simeon saw him, we will also do well. He saw salvation right before his eyes. He saw suffering in Christ’s future and salvation for those who trust in Him. He saw Jesus as the test of people’s hearts, whether they would believe and rise, or reject and fall. Jesus is a refuge, but He is also a stone of stumbling (Isaiah 8:14).

For leaders—Lead, and don’t do everything. For deacons—Be qualified, and work hard on your assigned tasks. Be skilled in them. For the congregation—Participate responsibly in selecting leaders, knowing who is spiritually qualified, and then help by not making their job difficult! Watch out for your teachers and pray that they do not become overwhelmed. Do not be prejudiced. Make sure that the church focuses on its God-given tasks such as the ministry of the Word, prayer, evangelism—and taking care of poor in the church.

I wish that I could unlock your mind and put these things in there and turn on the 'treasure and ponder' switch. I cannot do that. God can, however. And you have a part to play in it. About these most significant human events you have a choice to treasure them or reject them. A choice to ponder them or ignore them. A chance to believe them or scoff at them. An opportunity to be grateful or dismissive. You can consider them carefully as the days pass by, or the days can pass you by until you perish in your sin. We have here before us true history—it really happened that a man came from God. All the evidence we see later in Scripture points in the direction that He was extraordinary, unique, different than every other man. Christians embrace that this uniqueness points to His deity, that He in fact is Lord of heaven and earth, that he died for sinners and rose again from the dead. That’s the whole point of Christmas—that Jesus came to save His people from their sins.

The focus of John the Baptist and of his dad is on CHRIST. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Zacharias said, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. They explained why they said these things. Like those blessed saints of old, we too should be worshipping God in holy service.

Continuing Ministry of the Early Church

Take a moment to take stock of this fact. There is no self help in the Bible! There is God help but no self help. It is God who helps. It is God who raises up the lowly. It is God who did great things for young Mary. It is God who provides mercy to those who fear Him. It is God who helps Israel. The saying, God helps those who help themselves, has a wrong focus. Of course, we ought to be active participants in what God wants us to do, but to make God’s help secondary to us helping ourselves gives us way too much credit. Rather, we should say, God helps those who cannot help themselves.

I believe we should go about sharing the good news about Jesus without fear of what the authorities or society are going to do in response. If we are called on the carpet, give them the same testimony that Peter and John did. We have the privilege of sharing the message that blesses people by turning them away from sin.

I believe we should go about sharing the good news about Jesus without fear of what the authorities or society are going to do in response. If we are called on the carpet, give them the same testimony that Peter and John did. We have the privilege of sharing the message that blesses people by turning them away from sin.

Churches should keep themselves pure by avoiding the temptation to hastily appoint elders. Churches should allow for a period of time to evaluate the work and character of a man, allowing time for disqualifying sins to surface that might otherwise go unnoticed. Paul warns of the danger of acting hastily. Churches should avoid the guilt and responsibility of appointing men who later demonstrates themselves unfit for ministry. Paul writes a parenthetical remark to Timothy concerning using wine to help with Timothy's frequent illnesses. This passage is not to be used as an endorsement for social drinking.

Last time we learned about the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth to Zacharias and Elizabeth. Gabriel was the announcer of that momentous event. His next job was to visit Mary and announce to her the birth of the Messiah. Pastor Postiff addressed doubts about the virgin conception and birth on account of other supposed cases of parthenogenesis. The application emphasis was on Mary's willingness to be a servant of the Lord, and the question about whether we are as willing as she was.

Think of one area of your life where you need to live more closely to the Lord. Think of a regular sin, habit, pattern, addiction, repeated temptation, stumbling block, fear, anxiety. What is one of those things that is prominent in your mind right now?

Let the question sink in and think about it.

Now...how do you think God can help you deal with that situation? Notice I did not ask "How do you think YOU can solve the problem?" I asked, "How GOD can help you, how GOD can work in your, to deal with the problem?"

An accusation against an elder is a serious matter. While not to be ignored, an accusation is not to be accepted as true unless there are two or more witnesses. If the accusation proves true, the sinning elder is to be rebuked before the whole church. The act of rebuking an elder before the whole church can have a very sanctifying effect as it can be a deterrent to prevent others from participating in a similar wrongdoing. Timothy was not to show prejudice or partiality when accusations arose against an elder.

John and his parents are fine examples for us. By God’s grace, we too can Be righteous before God by faith, Be upright on our conduct, Experience answered prayer and the joy of it, Lead our children to be good in God’s sight, though they may not embrace John’s way for themselves, Avoid alcohol and other impure things; Be filled with God’s Spirit, Be an agent to point people to God, Believe God’s word, Be thankful to God when He gives gifts to us. The bigger picture was that God was setting up for One far greater than John to come and provide redemption for His people. John is a pointer to Jesus, a man great in his own right, but comparatively unworthy to loosen the sandal straps of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this session, we practiced our prior studies by looking in detail at 1 Peter 5:5-7 and John 3:16.

Peter and John enabled a lame man to walk, and God used this to authenticate not only their ministry but also to point the crowds to Jesus Christ in whose name the healing was performed. Once again, Peter confronts the people for supporting the crucifixion of Jesus and calls the people to repent and be converted. Since Jesus is that prophet that was like Moses (Deut. 18:15), it was imperative that the people listen to this message, else they will be destroyed. Peter ends on the note of blessing--God sent Christ to bless the people in turning them away from sin. To be turned from sin to God is the greatest of blessings that we can experience.

Acts 2 reveals eleven indispensable actions and attitudes that every church should have.

• Preach the gospel
• Baptist new Christians
• Welcome in new converts
• Continue in the Apostle's doctrine
• Continue in fellowship and regularly meeting together
• Continue in breaking of bread and eating meals together
• Continue in prayer
• Interact with outsiders
• Meet each other's needs
• Share a joyful mindset
• Praise God

Every church should work on these characteristics.

Art Fair Update

Luke wrote under the influence or superintendence of the Holy Spirit of God. What he wrote is true and without error. It is authoritative. It is meant to strengthen the faith of Christians, or to encourage nascent faith of not-quite-Christians so they can have a stable, certain foundation on which to build faith.

Acts 2 reveals eleven indispensable actions and attitudes that every church should have. In this message, we covered the first five or so:

• Preach the gospel
• Baptist new Christians
• Welcome in new converts
• Continue in the Apostle's doctrine
• Continue in fellowship and regularly meeting together

All pastors are worthy of respect and remuneration (Deut. 25:4; 1 Cor. 9:7–9), but pastors who rule exceptionally well by proving themselves to be devoted to their ministry--especially in teaching and preaching--are deserving of double honor. Double honor does not mean double the financial compensation, but deserving of greater respect and remuneration.

Your life is a microcosm of Israel’s generations-long history of unfaithfulness. Hopefully, you will receive the grace of God and then you will experience the other side of the situation: the enduring faithfulness of God. No matter your sinful lifestyle, God will take you in if you fear Him and call to Him for salvation.

We continue our series in logical relationships between ideas communicated in Scripture. This we augment the definitions and examples of last time with some simple diagramming and practice on 1 Peter 5:5-7.

Appalachian Bible College

Paul addresses the church's responsibility to honor true widows by caring for their needs. Paul enumerates on the qualities that characterize a true widow. A true widow is all alone, over the age of sixty, faithful in marriage, godly in conduct, full of good works. Widows with family were to be supported by family so as not to burden the church. Likewise, younger widows were not to be supported by the church, but remarry.

Remember that Moses penned the book of Genesis under the inspiration of God around 400 years after the events had occurred. It is without doubt that there was a healthy and accurate oral tradition of these major events passed down for generations, but God ensured that we have the completely accurate account of what happened.

We begin a three-part series on how to understand the connection or relationship between sentences, clauses, and phrases. This session focuses on the various kinds of logical relationships: name, meaning, and examples.

Acts Chapter 2

A believer's proper response to suffering righteously is to demonstrate a fear of the Lord—not man—by defending his faith, since the outcome is blessing.

We may tend to focus on Joseph in chapters 37-50, but God does something strange but wonderful for the entire clan of Joseph. It is strange that they would end up in Egypt. But wonderful that God saved them using the benevolence of a powerful nation nearby. Sometimes God will take you too on a path you did not anticipate. He may direct you on a path or rescue you by a way you would never expect. And God uses all kinds of people to bless His children, even unbelieving ones like Pharaoh.

Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life Part 3

The word Christ is another word for anointed or Messiah. All three mean the same thing. This is a very important concept in Hebrew religious thought because it refers to a person specially chosen by God to be Savior, Lord, and revealer of God to humankind. This was an individual, a person who was planned to be set apart by God as priest, king, and prophet. There are many references in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) to this person. Some passages use other descriptive words or phrases like servant or holy one or Son of God.

The most important thing we learn from this section occurs in chapter 45, where Joseph teaches us that God had superintended the events, as bad as they seemed in the midst of them, in order to ultimately preserve many people’s lives. And this is true today—God makes all things work together for good to those who are His chosen ones (Romans 8:28). He can limit sin, permit sin, permit bad sin, prevent sin, and use human sin for His purposes. Can you think of other times when God did similarly to accomplish his purposes—either in the Bible or in your own life? When have you been an instrument of God’s sovereignty in the help of others?

Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life Part 2

The Church age can be accurately described as the age of the Holy Spirit. Not that He was absent before, but His ministries are magnified today.

Though Timothy was young, his age was not to keep him from fulfilling his leadership responsibilities. In 1 Timothy 5:1-2, Timothy is directed to exhort church members as family, with gentleness, respect, and purity. Believers are to be aware of the spiritual sense in which they are related to one another as brothers and sisters and relate to them accordingly.

Hopefully we will not suffer the depth of trials that Joseph did. On the other hand, in humility we would never imagine or expect such height of earthly glory to come to ourselves as did to Joseph. After all, we are not in the Abrahamic line with the destiny of the nation of God’s people and coming Messiah resting on our life or actions. But we do have an impact on our families and church. We may not save a nation from starvation, but we can take steps to see to it that our families are properly cared for and spiritually well. We are also blessed to be part of the church community—many as direct members and others as collateral beneficiaries of the community. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. In that way, God has prospered Christians beyond measure in the things that truly matter. See my notes on Genesis 39:1-40:23 for a bit on the Christian theology of dreams. If you were in a situation like Joseph, in prison or in the government, how could you implement the Christian spiritual disciplines? You might not be able to do Bible reading for example, if you do not have a Bible or are in the middle of the workday, but you could pray, worship, evangelize, serve, use time wisely, fast, be in silence and solitude when appropriate, and persevere in the disciplines of faith.

Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life

The Church age can be accurately described as the age of the Holy Spirit. Not that He was absent before, but His ministries are magnified today.

God’s blessing was evidence of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. The injustices that befell Joseph were not evidence of God abandoning the covenant but rather preparing further steps of its fulfillment. When we think of the terrible moral conditions of the world, remember that these are not accidental. God is working through and with them to bring about His intended culmination of world events.

Our guest speaker read and taught from 1 Peter 5:5-11, 1 Corinthians 1-2, and a number of other passages regarding humility.

I am jumping ahead a little bit because most of us are familiar with how this situation turned out. God allowed evil to bring good. This is an illustration that you could use for the 'greater good theodicy' that explains why God permits evil. On the face of things, there seems to be no good way to accomplish sending Joseph to Egypt for a future rescue operation. It seems that he would not leave his dad voluntarily. We might imaginatively figure out some circumstance that would bring Joseph to Egypt, but it seems unlikely he would have encountered the same people in similar ways to allow him to rise to power. And, after all that was done, we would not have the bold lesson of good coming out of evil that God wants us to learn from Joseph’s experience. Over the centuries of human existence, people have noticed other situations where God has arranged for some bad thing to happen that brought some good thing about. The highest example of this is the cross of Jesus Christ—the worst injustice ever perpetrated on a human being resulted in the salvation of millions of souls.

In part 4, of our series in Acts 1:12-26, we go over the process that the apostles used to select a replacement for Judas. Despite how easy it is to focus on the lot-casting, there were three prior steps: they laid out qualifications, they nominated qualified men, and they prayed. Only after that did they cast lots. Pastor Matt explained why we do not use lots today in important decisions, though we might do so to decide between otherwise equal options.

It has often been pointed out that the Bible does not sugar-coat the human condition. It is very realistic as to what goes on in the world—even to the point of being uncomfortable for parents to read with their sheltered children! This evil serves not as a focal point, but as a pointer to the focal point: the need and provision of God’s grace. Without His favor, Jacob, his sons, and all of humanity for that matter, would be doomed forever. God maintained His promise to the family for a fruitful posterity and a homeland. God saves people despite their sinful condition. If you trust Him, He will save you in spite of your sin too!

Conclusion of James & How do you spend time in the Word?

In this message, we examine why Peter and the other apostles thought there was a need to replace Judas. They saw the need arising from things mentioned earlier in Scripture and by the Lord, not merely to get back to an "even" number of disciples or to propagate the apostolic office indefinitely far into the future.

One of the truths we encountered in this section is that we must rely on God’s promises to keep us steady in difficult trials. We must not 'freak out' in the face of problems. God will be with those of us who belong to Him. Period. Another truth: while I do not wish trials upon you, I do wish you the blessing of wrestling with God in prayer and prevailing. Maybe sometimes you will not 'prevail' to get the answer you want, but time spent with the Lord will never be a waste.

Filling the Empty Apostolic Office, Part 2 - This material lays the groundwork for the birth of the church in the next chapter.

In your life, do carefully seek God’s guidance by means of prayer and the Bible before you make any big moves, whether relocation or financial changes or relationships, etc. You will not get guidance like Jacob and Laban did via dreams, but you will receive wisdom as needed. But you must seek it (Prov. 2:4-5). Trust in God’s protection. Always be honest in your dealings. Then you do not have to worry about what criticisms will come at you years down the line. Do not be like Laban, highly possessive and unable to see other people prosper. We must constantly rebel against materialism in our hearts. Watch out for your family members: train them in godliness so that they will not fall into idolatry when you are not watching. Finally, count on God’s faithfulness, and develop a character that is faithful like His.

Introduction to Acts.

This is the kind of church we ought to be: following Jesus’ commandments, telling others that He is alive, understanding the program of God’s kingdom for the world, walking in the Spirit, not worrying about timing and other things we cannot know, carrying out the Great Commission, expecting His second coming.

This situation persisted for six more years, bringing the total up to 20 years until Jacob returned home. It was only in the last six years that Jacob truly “got ahead” and that happened despite how Laban seemed to continuously change the terms and conditions of his work. Next time we will see how Jacob escaped the tentacles of Laban and returned to the promised land.

In this message Pastor Postiff outlines seven aspects of the post-resurrection/pre-ascension ministry of Jesus during the 40 days between the resurrection and His ascension to heaven. The Lord:

1. Gave various commands to the apostles.
2. Was physically present with them 40 days.
3. Provided many convincing proofs of His resurrection.
4. Taught concerning the kingdom of God.
5. Instructed the disciples to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
6. Answered a question about the timing of the kingdom of God.
7. Issued the Great Commission.

Jacob deceived to get the blessing. But you cannot get a real blessing that way. You might get the words of a blessing, but not the blessing itself. Despite his chicanery, God still was with him. And here is the thing: God Himself gave Jacob the blessing of Abraham and Isaac. He did not need to scheme to get the blessing. God was going to see to it anyway. You trust God, and He will take care of you in the best way possible. He will never leave you. You might leave Him for a time, but would you come back to Him, declare Him to be your God, which He is anyway, and follow Him with yourself and your substance? Do not go anywhere, much less far away, until you are assured that God will be with you, until you can say that He is and will be your God.

In this message, Paul tells Timothy his purpose for writing the instructions found in chapters two and three. With the possibility of being delayed in his visit to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes so that Christians will know how to properly conduct themselves in the household of God. Herein we find the twofold reason for the importance of proper conduct in church. First, because the church belongs to the Living God. Second, because God uses His church to be the protector and advocate of the truth. The truth which Paul writes of is the Christian faith, which he summarizes in verse sixteen.

In this message, we begin studying the Book of Acts, particularly with regard to Luke's purpose in writing and the historical nature of his writing.

Scripture has taught us that deacons are vitally important to the church. Therefore, they must meet certain qualifications. We do not hastily appoint deacons, but first examine them. God is most concerned with the spiritual life of those in church leadership. If they fail to meet these criteria, they are unqualified to serve, no matter how they appear to be gifted. There is no limit to the number of deacons that can serve, but they must meet the qualifications, as must their wives. Deacons who serve well will gain a good standing before God and the church and will have a greater confidence in the faith which will inevitably lead to more service and greater boldness in communicating the truth.

Note that Jacob could have and should have received his father’s blessing—and God’s blessing—another way. We are 100% confident that God never requires us to sin to be in His will (James 1:13). We are also certain that if we believe in God, He will take care of things. But sometimes God allows these sorts of things in His plan to accomplish His purposes. I do not claim to understand how all that works, but I read it Scripture and the nature of the God whom I know means I can trust Him about this matter even though I don’t have it all figured out. What should Jacob and Rebekah have done? First, they should have recited to Isaac God’s words from 77-78 years earlier recorded in Genesis 25:23. God revealed them to her in answer to her prayer about the struggle that she felt inside of her womb. This was God’s plan for the lads. Second, Jacob and his mother should have reminded Isaac that his eldest son had exhibited extreme disrespect by despising the birthright. He sold it to his (slightly) younger brother. Legally, it belonged to the younger brother. Esau swore that he did not want it. This action not only showed disrespect for God, but also for his dad. Oh, that hurts to even hear it! Third, Esau exhibited a lack of concern for his family by his choice of marriage partners. He was OK with going down the pagan route, not believing the God of Abraham and Isaac. Finally, both parents should have abandoned their favoritism.

In baptism, we have a picture that we have died with Jesus, have been buried with Him, and rise again with Him. Its significance is a memorial, a symbol, and a prophecy of a saving truth of the gospel. I would not change the baptismal formula. We baptized in the name of the Triune God. Nor would I add blood baptism into the service to satisfy someone’s desire to have those words said, because there is no mystical power in those words. And those words likely indicate a bad sort of theology that we cannot endorse or co-sign.

Knowing Jesus does not merely quell the longing to know the meaning of life. Rather, knowing Him satisfies that desire, fills it, informs it. When you become a Christian, a true follower of Jesus, you have a life-giving connection to Him who is the source and sum of all wisdom. He is the fount of all knowledge. He is the giver of all comfort. He is the forgiver of all sin. He is the creator of all people. He is the designer of the entire universe. He is the sustainer of creation. He is the caregiver of all human and sub-human creation. He is the Son of God, and the Son of Man. He is the maker of time and eternity. He is the Savior of all, and He is the judge of all. We ought to consider life as God has given it to us. Think about it with all humility because we are limited creatures under God. We come at life not with resignation that we cannot understand it, but with the joy that we can—to a certain extent—and that we have more of a grasp of it now that Jesus has shown us the way to the Father. Knowing God and His risen Christ is the way to a joyful life, even as it moves through the obstacle course that we know life is.

Any time you distance yourself from God will certainly cause grief, either in the short term or long term, or both. But it will cause you grief, and probably it will cause others grief as well. It also causes Jesus grief. The Lord can ultimately deliver you from that sin and grief. Hopefully you will experience that very soon. And if you are in the midst of grief and sorrow because of loss or other situations beyond your control, be assured that the Lord Jesus knows all about it. He is very intimately acquainted with all of your sorrows. He knows by omniscience. He knows by experience. He knows by carrying those things upon Himself. He knows YOU. I pray He knows you savingly, and you also know Him.

Qualifications of Deacons

Our teacher continues his series teaching through the epistle of James.

The Great Commission Part 6

Jacob and Esau - This all is interesting history, to be sure. But it is more than that. It shows God’s providential direction of world history and His personal interest in individuals with whom He is working. It begins to warn us of partiality, and thoroughly calls us back from despising the covenant promises of God. If you walk away from God’s promises, you walk away from God and into a frightful and dark situation.

The Great Commission Part 5

A Wife for Isaac - God made arrangements for Isaac to find a wife, thus to be able to have children, and to propagate the Abrahamic lineage to the next generation. The promise was secure. For us, it would be good to consider some objective principles for finding a marriage partner, for the exact experience of the servant of Abraham is not how it works. What are some of these principles? One is that you must be solid in your conviction that marriage is a permanent establishment. So, only a high quality person is a candidate for you to consider for marriage. Physical appearance is not the guide for this requirement.

Book of James - Review, Tongue, Words, Asking, & Motives

The Great Commission Part 4

Proper Conduct of Women and Men in the Church

RBM Ministry Update

Matthew 28:18-20, The Great Commission, Part 3

In Remembrance of Me - Communion

Matthew 28:18-20, The Great Commission, Part 2

Matthew 28:18-20, The Great Commission, Part 1

The Christian minister's duty demands faith and integrity.

The Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Missionary Jack Mitchell gave us a ministry update and shared the Gospel.

On the first day of the week, the women who came to the tomb of Jesus learned from an angel that Jesus was not there anymore He had risen from the dead shortly before. They left to tell the other disciples. But as they went, they encountered Jesus.

Paul is thankful for God's grace.

Not everything that is true is helpful. However, God's Word is not like this! Everything He gives us in His Word is for a reason.

Respect for the Word of God

In just under two months (April 9, 2023) we will be celebrating the resurrection of Christ. But today in our verse-by-verse study in Matthew, we are already at the Scripture which reveals that miraculous event which is at the very foundation of the Christian faith. The text does not give any “theology” or “explanation of the meaning” of the events. It just recounts what happened. Let us read through it with Matthew and see what we can glean.

One thing we glean is this: the glorious truth of the resurrection must be told. So commanded the angel of God.

Our assistant pastor helpfully explains that there were certain false teachers who were misusing the Mosaic Law in the church at Ephesus. Paul was instructing Timothy how to deal with them by showing how the Law could be properly used within the context of the gospel of Christ.

In this passage, Pastor Postiff explains that Abraham's conduct confirmed his righteousness before God. That righteous standing was obtained by faith earlier in his life but was now demonstrated by works. True faith saves; true faith then works.

"Membership has its privileges." So says the marketing slogan of American Express starting back in 1987. But when we are talking about being part of (a member of) a church, it has far more than just a few scant privileges. It has massive responsibilities and blessings. Being a formal member is not just having access to a list of "perks."

For those who have forgotten, I thought it would be a good time to remind us about our responsibilities and blessings as members of our local church, and in particular what that means for in-person ministry and attendance at meetings.

God promised a son to Abraham and Sarah, and He brought that promise to fruition. God protected Hagar and Ishmael as a corollary benefit to His blessing of Abraham. And God protected Abraham from the unbelieving people around Him in the promised land.

What do you suppose God has done and can do for you?

Our teacher explains James 3 and focuses on the dangers of misuse of the tongue. He reminds us that the tongue can have a powerful impact.

The apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to correct false doctrine in Ephesus so that the believers will exhibit genuine Christian love. This love arises from three character traits: a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Our focus in church ministry should be to cultivate those characteristics in each and every Christian person.

After some initial remarks about Sanctity of Life Sunday, Pastor Postiff taught through Genesis 20. After the incident of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham "goes on with life" and resumes moving about the land that God had deeded to him (v. 1). The first incident narrated for us is about the interaction of Abraham and Abimelech. In it we learn:

• Abimelech taking Sarah was a threat to the fulfillment of God’s promise that a son would come to her via Abraham. God was dead serious about His promise. He is just as serious about the integrity of marriage.
• We see a worldly pagan king rebukes a follower of God. This is a sad testimony of the behavior of God’s people, and it happens too often (2 Samuel 12:14, Rom. 2:24, 2 Peter 2:2).
• Your sin can lead others to sin.
• Patterns of sin are hard to overcome.
• God restrains sin. Ask Him to restrain your own sinfulness. Pray that He leads you away from temptation.
• Handle sin maturely by confessing it and making it right. Do not make excuses for it.

Mr. Widgeon takes us into a study that ranges throughout chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the letter of James. He highlights the importance of hearing God's word, and the danger of the tongue, among other themes.

A number of signs (divinely arranged significant events) happened right around the time of Jesus's death. They included the tearing of the veil in the temple, the earthquake, the resurrection of some Old Testament-era saints, and some critical observations by the soldiers and onlooking women. Listen in to hear about these events and their importance.

The Apostle Paul was endowed with power by Jesus Christ. Paul writes to Timothy to remain in Ephesus, to address the false teachers who taught unsound doctrine. There was much division in the church, some desiring to be teachers of the law but not understanding accurately what they were teaching. We see Paul's intent of his letter to Timothy, that the church must soley consist of the accurate gospel of Jesus Christ, the only sound doctrine.

This passage falls naturally into five sections. God reveals to Abraham his plans to judge Sodom for its sin, Abraham intercedes for the righteous people living there, and then two angels go to Sodom and survey the situation and rescue Lot and his two daughters. Lot’s life post-Sodom was a mess. Note that in remembering mercy toward Lot, God was honoring His servant Abraham and the covenant that He had made with Abraham. Here are some wise principles: Avoid drunkenness because it is often associated with immorality. Do not hesitate to leave an evil situation, like Lot should have. Show true and protective hospitality like Lot did. Be boldly insistent in intercessory prayer like Abraham. Intercede for God’s mercy on the saved as well as his longsuffering toward the lost. Be diligent to know God and be known by Him. Is the sin named after the title city in this section the worst of the worst? Not by a long shot. Such a lifestyle is sinful, but a person involved in it can turn away from it (repent) and believe in Jesus. The result? God will completely forgive that person and wash them as clean as can be. Rejecting Christ is a far more serious sin, for there is no other rescue from that. And note this: Matthew 10:12- 15 and 11:23-24 tell of sins that will receive a worse judgment than Sodom. What are those sins? In the first case, it consists of not welcoming the disciples of the Lord and not listening to their words. This consists of rejecting the Christian message and messengers. In the second case, it is that the Lord Jesus did mighty works authenticating His identity and ministry in Capernaum. Rejecting Jesus, who was clearly sent from God, is worse than the sins of Sodom. God expects that you will receive His gracious gift of revealing Himself whether through miraculous works, Biblical words, or Christian workers.

In this message speaker James Widgeon continues our study in the book of James. In the book of James we see evidence of various kinds of trials or situations among the believers. Churches today can expect similar trials. If we understand the various trials mentioned in the book of James, believes will be equipped, knowing how to respond to these when they do occur in our present lives.

We continue studying the suffering of Jesus after the trial in front of Pilate and substitution of Barabbas. Things progress downhill rapidly. The gospel portrays for us a severely suffering Messiah. His physical suffering was matched by the emotional torment of nearly everyone turning against Him. The world was basically opposed to this perfect Man. They did so with almost complete misunderstanding of Him, even mocking him for who He really was. Let’s make sure we review: Jesus had the power to come down from the cross, but it was not God’s will for Him to do so. Thus it was not His will to do so. God’s will was for Him to go farther—to die, and be buried, and then to conquer the situation by rising from the dead. He saved others, and He can also save YOU. He did not save Himself because He had to provide for YOUR salvation. He is in fact the Son of God, and He is in fact the King of Israel. He fulfilled the OT prophecies concerning the suffering servant, and will return as conquering lion of Judah when the time is right.

In this message Jansen Lorch leads our new study in the book of Timothy. We consider the greeting, where comments stated in these first two verses form the foundation of the letter. Paul invoked upon Timothy the same grace, mercy, and peace that God gives us. We can experience His grace, mercy, and peace continuously, thanks be to God!

Take a moment to review what we have studied lately in Genesis. Start with chapter 12—God’s initial description of the terms of the Abrahamic covenant. Abram moved to Egypt temporarily. In chapter 13, Abram moved back to the promised land and had to split from Lot because of their combined herd size. Lot moved toward Sodom, a decision that would prove devastating in two separate incidents in the future. The first such incident was in chapter 14, where Lot was kidnapped by a coalition of kings that came against Sodom and other allied cities. Abraham retrieved him, and Melchizedek came out and blessed Abram who had returned from defeating the kings. In chapter 15, God officially made (“cut”) the covenant with Abram and promised the land to his descendants. Hagar bears Ishmael in chapter 16, the result of a hare-brained (rash or ill-judged) plan to get Abram an heir since he and Sarah could not seem to make that happen. God’s tender care toward Hagar is shown. Finally, in chapter 17, God reiterates the covenant a third time and gives a physical sign—male circumcision—to remind the nation of the blessings of the covenant (Abram will multiply, nations and kings will descend from him, the land grant) and of their responsibilities in it (walk blamelessly, keep the covenant). Notice the cyclical nature of this portion of Scripture: God’s promise, man’s failure and God’s rescue, God’s promise confirmed, man has another failure, God remains faithful, and then God promises—and requires faithfulness in His people.

In this message speaker James Widgeon continues our study in the book of James. In the book of James we see evidence of various kinds of trials or situations among the believers. Churches today can expect similar trials. If we understand the various trials mentioned in the book of James, believes will be equipped, knowing how to respond to these when they do occur in our present lives.

We continue studying the suffering of Jesus after the trial in front of Pilate and substitution of Barabbas. Things progress downhill rapidly. The gospel portrays for us a severely suffering Messiah. His physical suffering was matched by the emotional torment of nearly everyone turning against Him. The world was basically opposed to this perfect Man. They did so with almost complete misunderstanding of Him, even mocking him for who He really was. Let’s make sure we review: Jesus had the power to come down from the cross, but it was not God’s will for Him to do so. Thus it was not His will to do so. God’s will was for Him to go farther—to die, and be buried, and then to conquer the situation by rising from the dead. He saved others, and He can also save YOU. He did not save Himself because He had to provide for YOUR salvation. He is in fact the Son of God, and He is in fact the King of Israel. He fulfilled the OT prophecies concerning the suffering servant, and will return as conquering lion of Judah when the time is right.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study by answering the following questions: Why did God choose Israel? Why Did God chose 'You'? How did God's covenant with Abraham grant you His favor and Grace?

When reading this short account about Anna, we would have to work hard to avoid some serious questions for ourselves. • Do we care about what Christmas really means? • Are we like “those who looked for redemption”? • Are we as keen as they were to hear from Anna her aged wisdom, or do we throw all that to the side of the road and barrel down the highway of life oblivious to what our elders have learned and what God has promised to do in the world? • Are we like Anna, who served God diligently for decades of her life even after her dear spouse passed away? • Do we give thanks to God—for anything? • Do we have good insight into God’s word? • Are we going to be faithful all the way into our old age? • Will our faith be expressed in the manner God ordains in this era—in connection with our church family?

In this message speaker James Widgeon continues our study in the book of James. In the book of James we see evidence of various kinds of trials or situations among the believers. Churches today can expect similar trials. If we understand the various trials mentioned in the book of James, believes will be equipped, knowing how to respond to these when they do occur in our present lives.

We continue the study of Jesus after the trial and the substitution of Barabbas, a murderer, who deserved the death penalty. Jesus, however, was set to be crucified instead. Pilate, the Roman governor handed Him over to His death, just as the crowd demanded. The Roman soldiers scourged and mocked Him and led Him to be crucified. All these events occurred during the Passover. The Roman soldiers compelled a man of Cyrene, Simon, to bear His cross. When they came to Golgotha, the Romans gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. Jesus tasted it but would not drink it. Then they crucified Him along with the two other men who were crucified. Roman soldiers divided their things, casting lots. Jesus went through all of this to take the wrath of God against Himself, for us.

Over the years, I have written several messages on how the first Christmas looked from the perspective of various people who were there: Joseph, Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, the wise men, and Herod. In this message, I am going to revisit the shepherds in more detail than I have before. Then I hope to consider Anna in another message, the angels, Elizabeth, and even John the Baptist. This message will hopefully build up your faith and not be merely an academic exercise. But that depends on your perspective on Christmas. We are like the shepherds. We recognize we are lowly in the eyes of the world, and yet greatly privileged to be given the Christmas news of a Rescuer who will save His people from their sins. Therefore, we make widely known what happened to everyone we can—and to our children and grandchildren as well. The fact that the angels visited and told us that the Messiah was born to be our Savior is tremendously important. It is news that is second to nothing. These are the Christmas tidings of great joy to all people!

On this Christmas morning, Jansen Lorch leads our study, where we see how God used people who have royally messed up to accomplish His divine will of delivering the purest of gifts to mankind.

For this years Christmas Eve service, we celebrate our Lord's birth through worship by song and readings in Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 1:18-23, and John 1:14. Jansen Lorch leads our study, focused on the prophet Isaiah 7:14, on thoughts surrounding this prophetic passage about Jesus Christs birth.

At least three of the Biblical covenants have “signs” associated with them. These signs serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness and covenant requirements on His people. The Covenant with Noah has the sign of the rainbow (Gen. 9:16-17). The Covenant with Abraham has as a sign male circumcision (Gen. 17:11, Rom. 4:11). We will see this as we study Genesis 17. The Covenant with Moses is signified by the Sabbath (Exodus 31:13, Ezek. 20:12, 20). Of these three signs, the rainbow is still operational and relevant; male circumcision is not required; Sabbath observation is not required either. Jewish people are free to maintain the latter two signs if they wish. But neither Jews nor Gentiles are under the Law of Moses today, because it has been fulfilled in Christ and replaced by the Law of Christ. Stop and think if there are any similar “signs” that we have in the church era of God’s program. What does all this mean for us? Obviously, we can anticipate that God keeps His promises. Remember that the Abrahamic Covenant impacts us in Christ. God can do things that seem impossible. God even blesses those outside the boundaries of the covenant—not with all the provisions of the covenant, but with some blessings nonetheless.

Pastor Matt answers a question from Matthew chapter 1:23 about the word "the" when referencing the virgin Mary. It specifies "the virgin", who did not know a man. This is the well-known virgin. Not all verses referencing the virgin begin with "the" virgin. Additionally, Pastor Matt leads our study today. Do you have friends in high places? I ran into a verse in John 15 recently that fascinated me, so I studied a little bit about it to see if I could understand it better. Here it is: John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. My thoughts started out with the idea of being a friend with God as contrasted with being a slave or servant of God. But that led to other passages which speak of someone as a friend of God. And that then led to what it means to be a slave of God. What is the Lord saying in John 15:15? It seems unarguable from other passages that a Christian is a bondservant, or more simply, a servant, of God. The apostles were Christ’s servants (Rom. 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1:1, Revelation 1:1). We are “unprofitable servants” (Luke 17:10). But the Lord Jesus makes it plain that His disciples are not slaves, or better, not merely slaves. I am going to lay down the assumption that this applies to us as well, not just the apostles because they have a super-privileged place. Somehow, both slave and friend are true descriptions of our relationship to God. The partial conclusion that I’ve drawn from thinking about this question of friend versus servant is that we need to be careful not to make our relationship with Jesus be too “slavish” to the detriment of other facets of our relationship. Indeed, we do have a relationship with the Master. He considers us his friends, and we can consider Him our friend as well, without being flippant about it. We should not be indifferent to this idea because it is precious, important, powerful. We need to see ourselves in the full light of what God has told us our relationship with Him is, not just part of that light. It is a huge privilege to be able to rightly think of ourselves as friends of Christ—very close friends, not merely acquaintances. We are “in” on His plans. We know what He is doing because He has told us. We are not in the dark on things.

We are delighted to celebrate Christ's birthday today, through Fellowship Bible Church's Christmas Program! We had a wonderful time of special music, Scripture, and studying of God's Word!

We conclude with a reminder of Romans 1:1-5. The good news from God is all about His Son, to Whom we owe the obedience of our allegiance. He is the wisest counselor, the prince of peace, the Father of eternity, and the mighty God. He is worthy.

What is the significance of our prayers for the Lost? It reflects the fundamental truth that there is only one way of salvation. It points to the exclusivity of the only one true Living God. Our requests for people to believe in Jesus Christ reflect the fundamental truth that there is only one Mediator—someone to bring about reconciliation between God and man—Jesus Christ, a man Himself. Whether you thought about it or not when you are praying, these fundamental truths are what drives us to pray for the Lost and to expect that God will answer these prayers.

The world will throw at us some things to trip us up. It will keep coming, as Peter experienced three times. With God’s strength, we can endure. But when failure comes— for which of us does not fail?—we can be assured God will be gracious to us like He was toward Peter. I am saying these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one who paid for all our sins (1 John 2:1-2).

In obedience to God’s Word, our prayer life should consistently include praying for the Lost to be saved. Such prayers should especially be on behalf of those in authority, because their salvation has practical implications for Christians’ ability to lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence. We ought to pray for the Lost because we know that it is pleasing in the Savior’s sight because He desires that all people to be saved. We ought to pray indiscriminately because we do not know whom God’s elect are. When we look at the world around us, we ought to think in only one category: Lost. And when we pray for all men in this way, we can have confidence that God will answer these prayers according to His perfect will by sending someone to give them the Gospel. But be ready, His answer to your prayer may me be you going and telling them the Good News.

Starting a family was not going as planned, so Sarai suggested that they have a child by a surrogate mother, Hagar. Bad idea! Sarai is in the wrong to suggest the idea even though it was a common cultural practice. Culture is often wrong. Furthermore, Abram caved to her plan when he should have stood up to her and said “no.” Just because his wife nagged him to sin was no valid excuse to follow her idea. But Abram went ahead and took Hagar as a second wife and fathered Ishmael. The problem of polygamy is raised here. God records it in His Word to show the consequences of it and by contrast the beauty of a wellordered marriage. Obviously, the Bible does not smile upon their perversion of the marriage relationship, as evidenced by the consequences that follow in the family structure (16:4ff). Two-becoming one in the marriage relationship makes it impossible for polygamy to be morally upright or workable.

We were honored to take communion this morning as the Lord instructed His church to do, until he returns. In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of James. In the book of James we see evidence of various kinds of trials or situations among the believers. Churches today can expect similar trials. If we understand the various trials mentioned in the book of James, believes will be equipped, knowing how to respond to these when they do occur in our present lives.

Clearly, the “human reason” that Jesus was killed was for claiming to be what He was—Son of God and Son of Man. Deeper than that, however, is the divine reason. He was going to die to ransom and rescue sinners from their bondage to sin and death. He gave His life by means of a terribly unjust trial. It was the height of evil for Jewish people to corrupt the law of God against the Son of God to kill Him. But observe how God brought much good out of much evil.

The message of Christ creates a twofold effect on its recipients. It is repulsive to some, that is, to unbelievers, yet it is life giving to those to do believe. We know from the context of this passage that the Apostle Paul had experienced much pain and difficulty in his ministry to the Corinthians. Paul wrote exhortations to address problems within the church of Corinth and worked with Titus to obtain the state of the church. The Corinthian church received Paul's message well. Paul praises God who led the Corinthian church in triumph, through Him.

How can you know that if you trust God, He will indeed ensure that righteous standing to you forever? As much as He did for Abram—promising to die like the split-in-two animals if He did not keep the covenant—He did even more for us. He sent His Son to actually die to seal our redemption. He walked among sinners (John 1:14), with those who sat in great darkness (Matt. 4:16), as the light of the world (John 8:12). He died alone to purge our sins (Heb. 1:3). We do not participate in the manufacture of our redemption. We trust Him, just like Abram trusted God. And God imputes righteousness to us just like He did to Abram. Thanks to be the Lord of all, the most high God, possessor of Heaven and earth. The God of Abraham praise, for His mercy endures to all generations.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of James. In the book of James we see evidence of various kinds of trials or situations among the believers. Churches today can expect similar trials. If we understand the various trials mentioned in the book of James, believes will be equipped, knowing how to respond to these when they do occur in our present lives.

Christian theology reminds us that God is infinite. He is so big that He is under, over, in, and through everything. Whatever good and right thing we are thankful for must be associated somehow with Him. Gratitude affects our mind, our speech, our attitude, our bodies, our health, our sleep. Let’s be thankful! We were also blessed to hear some Thanksgiving testimonies.

Pastor Matt addresses a question from Revelation 10:6, in which we learn of time in the eternal state. We conclude that time itself won't end as some may believe in the eternal state. See Revelation 22:2, Acts 1:11, and Genesis 1:31. Time should be translated as "delay". Refer to Pastor Matt's blog "Time no More?". Additionally, we continue our study in Matthew 26 on the betrayal and arrest of Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.

God introduces an important person in a very oblique way in the three verses of this Old Testament narrative. This person is a prototype of the Messiah. There is no record of his birth or death, so it is like his priesthood popped onto the scene and never really stopped. I believe he died, and that he was not a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus on earth. Then God promised to make another priest in this sparse line/order, and that priest is Jesus the Messiah. He Himself is blessed, and blesses God, and favors His people. He delivers us from sin. He is worthy of all the tithes and offerings that we could make.

There are many great lessons we can glean from Christ’s witness to the Lost. As you read through these passages, it may be helpful to write down observations you see in the text. What wording does Jesus use? What is the right response that Jesus call for from them? How does Jesus speak to them personally? How does Jesus preach differently to an individual versus a large crowd? Answering these kinds of questions from the text can undoubtedly help us in our evangelism.

Dinner has ended. The disciples are processing the bad news of Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s denial, and all the disciples fleeing. They were on the way to the Mount of Olives. We review the setting, the mindset of the Lord Jesus, and the three rounds of prayer leading up to the when Judas and the authorities came to arrest Jesus. Jesus directed the disciples that it was time for all of them to be going. Of course, He knew that He would not get away from the authorities. However, the other disciples would not want to be arrested. Nor did Jesus permit them to be persecuted at this time. He protected them to the end (John 17:12).

The message of Christ creates a twofold effect on its recipients. It is repulsive to some, that is, to unbelievers, yet it is life giving to those to do believe. We know from the context of this passage that the Apostle Paul had experienced much pain and difficulty in his ministry to the Corinthians. Paul wrote exhortations to address problems within the church of Corinth and worked with Titus to obtain the state of the church. The Corinthian church received Paul's message well. Paul praises God who led the Corinthian church in triumph, through Him.

Now that we have seen Abram’s family history and the initial giving of the Abrahamic Covenant, we will learn about some more of his travels, his dealing with Lot, and his interactions with the peoples around him.We do not find the gospel in every passage in the Bible. But what we do find, especially in the Old Testament, can give us wisdom that leads us to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). Furthermore, what we find there reveals God’s evaluation of different ways of living and can help us avoid “boneheaded” decisions like those made by Lot. Those decisions might seem right at the time but looking back we will see that they were stupid. Reading Scripture and thinking about what we read will help us gain godly experience without having to make so many of those bad decisions ourselves. Take Abram’s character as the main lesson: he was peaceable, generous, kind, a man of God-centered worship and integrity, and one who wanted God to be honored above all else. He recognized that the blessings in his life came from God. Where did this originate in Abram? No doubt it started with his relationship to God. He was a man of faith, and God blessed him in that faith. Each of us ought to look at our lives and see if we are like Abram.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of James. We focus our attention to the audience James is writing too, the 12 tribes of Israel which are scattered. The Gospel of Christ was delivered through various people as instruments, to share the Him with the world. These servants were the first fruits of Jesus Christ, beloved brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bad news keeps coming for the disciples. Someone was about to betray Jesus. He will not share the fruit of the vine with them again until the Kingdom. Now, Jesus makes another difficult announcement. The Lord did not stop His mission just because His close friends failed Him. He kept going and completed the work.

A few of our brothers share their testimonies and experiences evangelizing to college students recently and follow up by lifting each one in prayer. Pastor Matt also answers questions pertaining to the Lord's Table Service and how it ought to be carried out.

At this point, we have reached the account of Abraham. He is the center of attention through chapter 25. This is quite a history lesson which sets the stage for the rest of the Old Testament. It helps us understand where the Jewish people came from and gives us an early promise of the gospel. It reminds us to obey what God tells us to do, and to trust Him enough to persevere in obedience even if it seems somewhat dangerous.

There are many great lessons we can glean from Christ’s witness to the Lost. As you read through these passages, it may be helpful to write down observations you see in the text. What wording does Jesus use? What is the right response that Jesus call for from them? How does Jesus speak to them personally? How does Jesus preach differently to an individual versus a large crowd? Answering these kinds of questions from the text can undoubtedly help us in our evangelism.

The Lord institutes two new symbols from Passover for the Communion remembrance of the Church (the Lord’s Table). This portion of the Bible is worthy of us slowing down to consider carefully what the Lord says and does here. After all, this is one of the world-wide church’s two ordinances (the other being baptism). Because it is practiced very differently by difference factions of the church, we need to think about our own practice in light of what the Lord says.

Recall that there are 10 major sections in the book of Genesis; each is introduced with the phrase “this is the genealogy of…” After the death of Noah in 9:29, we have a new section in 10:1 which is traditionally called “The Table of Nations.” It shows us the origin of different national entities after the flood. You may have a question regarding the order of chapters 10 and 11, because 10:5, 20, 31 mention “languages” or “tongues,” but chapter 11 describes the origin of different languages at the Tower of Babel. Is there a mistake here? Not at all. Chapter 11 explains the origin of the different nations listed in chapter 10. Chapter 10 is a summary, and chapter 11 offers further explanation. God has not left us clueless about how we got here. Some of the most “boring” passages of Scripture are significant when it comes to questions that people might ask. “Where do I come from?” “Where do we come from?” “Where did the Jews come from?” “How old is the earth?”.

In this message Jansen Lorch leads our continued study on practical evangelism. We review the fundamentals of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this lesson and the ones to follow, we study how Christians can reinforce our ability to communicate a clear and full gospel message.

The Lord institutes two new symbols from Passover for the Communion remembrance of the Church (the Lord’s Table). This portion of the Bible is worthy of us slowing down to consider carefully what the Lord says and does here. After all, this is one of the world-wide church’s two ordinances (the other being baptism). Because it is practiced very differently by difference factions of the church, we need to think about our own practice in light of what the Lord says.

Each and every one of us who are believers in Christ should ask ourselves if we could be the one who would betray or deny or sin against the Lord. If you are not concerned about yourself that you could fall into sin, then you need to re-tool your mindset. We all have a tendency or seed of sin in us—even after being saved— that can grow into a very bad fruiting tree. We need God’s help to walk the straight and narrow path and not veer off temporarily into bad neighborhoods. Jesus went through all of this for His creation… for you.

During the week of my study for this message, the State of Oklahoma executed a man named Benjamin Cole who 20 years ago broke the spine of his 9-month-old daughter and caused her to bleed to death. Despite some claim of mental illness, there was evidently no question that he committed the crime, just as there has been no question raised as to the culpability of Nicholas Cruz for the Parkland school shooting, or of Ethan Crumbly for the Oxford school shooting. These are clear cases. To be as clear as possible, my position, derived from Scripture, is this: (1) We cannot eliminate the death penalty altogether because our all-wise and merciful God has set it in place as the ultimate restraint against evil. Otherwise, evil will over-run good, and we 7 will live in a society full of anarchy. God records for us in Scripture the exercise of this punishment on numerous occasions. (2) We can and should exercise mercy on a case-by-case basis for youthful offenders, those with mental illness, or other mitigating factors. God demonstrates mercy in Scripture as well. (3) Because of the sinfulness of all people—judges, prosecutors, and accusers included—not just murderers—we must be very conservative to make sure that the offender truly deserves the death penalty. The Scriptures’ rules for witnesses and punishment for false witnesses demonstrate this as well. All three points are supported by Scripture. Where Scripture stands, I stand. I hope you will stand with God in His book as well. As difficult as some things are in this life, dear friends, they must be done for society to honor God. You might ask, “What can I do…after all, the laws of our land are what they are, and I cannot change that.” True enough. But you can do something—believe rightly! Believe how God explains the matter in His word. Trust Him and His infinite goodness. Do not think you can out-think God on this one. He has considered the totality of the world situation, of every individual situation, of every one of His attributes, of all possible future circumstances, of every possible expression of mercy and goodness and judgment. And in wisdom He has put all that together and instructed us for our good and His glory.

In this message Jansen Lorch leads our continued study on practical evangelism. We review the fundamentals of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this lesson and the ones to follow, we study how Christians can reinforce our ability to communicate a clear and full gospel message.

Each and every one of us who are believers in Christ should ask ourselves if we could be the one who would betray or deny or sin against the Lord. If you are not concerned about yourself that you could fall into sin, then you need to re-tool your mindset. We all have a tendency or seed of sin in us—even after being saved— that can grow into a very bad fruiting tree. We need God’s help to walk the straight and narrow path and not veer off temporarily into bad neighborhoods. Jesus went through all of this for His creation… for you.

The public ministry of the Lord Jesus has come to an end now. He will spend some more time with the disciples in a private meal and meeting. The chapter ends with Jesus being condemned to die. These 16 verses set the stage for chapters 26-27 of Matthew’s gospel. The rest of the text will show the outworking of the Lord’s betrayal, crucifixion, and burial.

A new dispensation begins with Noah leaving the Ark and the revelation that God gives in this chapter. We call it the dispensation of human government because man is given the ultimate sanction: capital punishment. This implies a governmental structure where man in his corporate arrangements can mete out such punishment on individuals. We assume then that God permits less severe sanctions. Certain responsibilities and promises from this chapter carry on today. God wants the human race to reproduce, but people want to depopulate, abort, and birth-control their way out of that responsibility. The rainbow certainly is still with us, though it has been invalidly appropriated by those who oppose God’s morality. Capital punishment is still permitted for those who are murderers, but mankind has become squishy and does not want to implement God’s directive. Lawlessness abounds and where punishment is not swift and certain, lawlessness only grows. We can still eat meat, but some of us eat too much and others claim it is cruel to do so. It would be hard to say that this chapter of the Bible is irrelevant today, even though it records events and God’s instructions from 5,000 years ago!

In this message Jansen Lorch leads our continued study on practical evangelism. We review the fundamentals of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this lesson and the ones to follow, we study how Christians can reinforce our ability to communicate a clear and full gospel message.

About Psalm 84: I was told that the Valley of Baca meant Valley of Weeping. We have some dear church members who are going through the Valley of Weeping now and understanding that Psalm would help us to minister to them. May God bring comfort to all who are in distress in our churches. Remember too that it is not just portions of Scripture considered and applied with the help of God’s Spirit that bring comfort. God very often uses believing people to bring comfort to others in the church family. He uses the preaching of the word by our Bible teachers, the presence of encouraging people, the service of dedicated helpers, the gifts of generous givers, and the prayers of the saints. All these different ways help those in need to make it through their difficult times.

We know a lot about the Lord’s return and the end of the age. We do not know everything we might like. But we do know enough to be faithful to Christ until He comes. Let us be about that. We are to live for Him, grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, testify for him, make disciples, be baptized and baptize, be faithful in the local church, and wait expectantly for His return.

The universal flood is important for Bible-believers to uphold, just like it is important to believe the creation account as written. If we cannot trust the opening chapters of our Bible, then we cannot trust any of it. God had Moses write what we needed to know. He then ensured its accurate transmission to us. Second, the flood account is not something of which to be ashamed, as if it were a myth. It really did happen, despite all the denials by people today. Do not be ashamed of the Bible’s teaching even if all your scientific friends mock it. Being ashamed is evidence that you fear people more than you respect God. Third, the flood is an example of how God can and will judge the world just as easily as He created it. He will do so again, though the next time with a world-wide tribulation, followed by the millennial kingdom, at the conclusion of which the earth will be destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:7, 10, 11, 12). So no, all things will not continue forever as they have in recent history. Substantial changes are coming. Are you ready? Finally, because of the continued evaluation of mankind as extremely sinful (8:21), we intuitively understand the need to do as much good as possible in this world. We are to restrain sin. We are to train our children to be righteous people, and hopefully saved people. We are to demand our kids to be righteous while they are in our home, and even beyond. Christians today are a major reason that the world has as much good in it as it does. We need more, and it is a lot of work. We need to vote to restrain sin. We need to advocate to reduce evil.

In this message Jansen Lorch leads our study and introduces our topic of practical evangelism. We begin to review some of the various methods we can use when sharing the gospel of Christ. In this lesson and the ones to follow, Jansen hopes in the weeks ahead we can reinforce our ability to communicate a clear and full gospel message.

We know a lot about the Lord’s return and the end of the age. We do not know everything we might like. But we do know enough to be faithful to Christ until He comes. Let us be about that. We are to live for Him, grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, testify for him, make disciples, be baptized and baptize, be faithful in the local church, and wait expectantly for His return.

We know a lot about the Lord’s return and the end of the age. We do not know everything we might like. But we do know enough to be faithful to Christ until He comes. Let us be about that. We are to live for Him, grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, testify for him, make disciples, be baptized and baptize, be faithful in the local church, and wait expectantly for His return.

This chapter introduces Noah’s genealogy (see 6:9 and through 9:29) and lays out the background for the universal flood judgment that God poured out on the planet and its inhabitants. Noah did according to what God commanded him. What a breath of fresh air that is! This is no fanciful tale, no myth nor legend. It is actual history. Also note God’s evaluation of the earth throughout the chapter (v. 3, 5- 7, 11-13). It is bleak. Actually, the situation is not much better today (Eccl. 7:29). Let us be like Noah – just, perfect, walking with God, and doing what God commands.

I observed something this week when reading the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, and I wanted to share it with you. I probably have heard this before, or saw it before, but it really stuck out this time reading through the New Testament. Perhaps the most well-known repeated feature of these short letters to the churches is the call for those who have an ear to hear. Another aspect of them that is well-known is the criticisms that the Lord lays at the feet of many of the churches for areas where they need to repent. And we need to heed all of those. But there is another repeated feature that is an encouragement. I am encouraged by these words. I hope you are too.

We know a lot about the Lord’s return and the end of the age. We do not know everything we might like. But we do know enough to be faithful to Christ until He comes. Let us be about that. We are to live for Him, grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, testify for him, make disciples, be baptized and baptize, be faithful in the local church, and wait expectantly for His return.

From our initial state born into sin, we have to change our willingness toward God. We start out wanting to please ourselves, and this results in the kind of misdirected religion that the Pharisees and the scribes exhibited. It was hypocritical, filthy, lying, greedy, and just sinful all the way around. But if we repent of these kinds of things and change our minds so that we are willing to draw near to the Lord and have Him as our protector, guide, and savior, then we will be rescued from our stubborn, dirty lives.

Now that we have studied the initial creation (1:1-2:3), the history of the earth through the fall, curse, and Cain and Abel (2:4-4:26), we are now taken by the author to his third section, the history of Adam’s family. While there was some genealogical information in 4:1-2, 16-22, and 25-26, this chapter contains the first detailed genealogy of the Bible. There are ten main characters listed in chapter 5, from Adam to Noah. Each person has about 3 verses devoted to them, in this general form: 1. The man lived so many years and had a son. 2. After he had his son, he lived so many more years. 3. During that time, he had more sons and daughters. 4. The length of his life was so many years total. 5. He died. There are a couple of exceptions to this pattern. The most notable of these is the translation of Enoch. Instead of dying, he was translated directly into God’s presence. Enoch is also said to have “walked with God” for 300 years (5:22, 24). This is not mentioned of any of the other men in the list. God, give us more people who walk with you! Another exception to this pattern is Lamech in 5:29. There he names Noah and gives an explanation given for the name. The final exception is Noah himself, who is listed as having three sons, who is older than all the other men at the birth of their notable sons, and a who has a large section of the Bible (chapters 6 through 9) focused on his life and times. At the end of that section, #4 and #5 from the above pattern are recorded (9:28-29).

The Lord desires His people to praise Him with their whole heart, fully praising God for His faithfulness and justice. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord blesses those who keep His commandments, blessing them greatly. Most assuredly, righteousness endures forever. The Lord's name is to be praised, above all nations, forever and ever! Amen!

From our initial state born into sin, we have to change our willingness toward God. We start out wanting to please ourselves, and this results in the kind of misdirected religion that the Pharisees and the scribes exhibited. It was hypocritical, filthy, lying, greedy, and just sinful all the way around. But if we repent of these kinds of things and change our minds so that we are willing to draw near to the Lord and have Him as our protector, guide, and savior, then we will be rescued from our stubborn, dirty lives.

We continue the section numbering from the last message. The Lord is foreclosing the offer of the kingdom to the nation. The eight “woes” pronounced by the Lord show that judgment is impending. This text is directed immediately at the nation of Israel in this historical context. Is it applicable to modern-day readers? All Scripture is relevant to the modern-day reader somehow. It is our job to read and think to see exactly how it can legitimately apply. In this case, the text will mention things that are very displeasing to God. They are still displeasing today, so if we find those attributes in our lives, we need to confess them to the Lord and repent.

Genesis tells us about the beginning of everything, even murder. But in this passage also there is a hopeful note as people begin to call on God to save them. That’s the only hope of mankind—not politics or education or medicine or science or secular counseling. You must call and continue to call on the name of Jesus our Lord as well. Do it now before sin leaps upon you and takes over your life.

The Lord desires His people to praise Him with their whole heart, fully praising God for His faithfulness and justice. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord blesses those who keep His commandments, blessing them greatly. Most assuredly, righteousness endures forever. The Lord's name is to be praised, above all nations, forever and ever! Amen!

Instead of being like the Pharisees in their self-seeking, praise motivated attitude, we are to be humble servants. Once again, the Lord teaches us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled (put down), and those who humble themselves will be exalted (lifted up). This common phraseology, by the way, is a general teaching. God may put down a self-exalting person in this life to bring them to faith or improve their walk of faith, or put them down eternally in judgment. A humble person of faith he will lift up, perhaps in this life or perhaps not, but definitely in the kingdom and eternity.

The Pharisees and Herodians were desperate to find an excuse to get rid of Jesus. They wanted to kill him (John 5:18, 11:53; Luke 13:31) so they could maintain their grip on power. The Pharisees were the religious party, and the Herodians were the political party. Many of the Herodians were likely Sadducees as well. We see how Jesus answered the Sadducee's questions using scripture to testify of the resurrection to come.

Genesis is the book of beginnings. As we said in our introductory message, Genesis covers the genesis of evil. I could have said there sin just as well, for that is what we see in chapter 3. However, the history of sin has a very strange beginning. Thus was the beginning of sin and evil in the world. God planned for it with redemption in Christ. Anyone who turns away from sin and turns to Christ in faith, seeking His pardon, will be delivered from sin and its curse. You can to—today.

The Pharisees and Herodians were desperate to find an excuse to get rid of Jesus. They wanted to kill him (John 5:18, 11:53; Luke 13:31) so they could maintain their grip on power. The Pharisees were the religious party, and the Herodians were the political party. Many of the Herodians were likely Sadducees as well. We see how Jesus answered the Sadducee's questions using scripture to testify of the resurrection to come.

In this message Pastor Matt speaks on the doctrine of divine judgement. It is a troubling topic for some, which deals with eternal punishment for sin. All sinners who do not repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus will be eternally separated from Him. The doctrine is abhorrent to those who do not follow Christ.

I recommend you and your students learn about modern cosmology and evolution in order to be conversant with “people of the culture” today. Do not be afraid to hear it taught. But have a strong foundation in creationism. Do not be fooled by the “self-organizing chaos” theory promoted today. It is just a new “learned” form of pagan thought. Learn how to speak kindly to evolution-believers about your own beliefs and where they come from. Be able to show them by manner and content that you are reasonable and have a God-honoring answer for their view. And do not be afraid of science. Use it to glorify God like many scientists of old. Recognize in all of this that God made the universe, and derivatively, he made YOU. You are responsible to Him.

The Lord desires His people to praise Him with their whole heart, fully praising God for His faithfulness and justice. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord blesses those who keep His commandments, blessing them greatly. Most assuredly, righteousness endures forever. The Lord's name is to be praised, above all nations, forever and ever! Amen!

The Pharisees and Herodians were desperate to find an excuse to get rid of Jesus. They wanted to kill him (John 5:18, 11:53; Luke 13:31) so they could maintain their grip on power. The Pharisees were the religious party, and the Herodians were the political party. Many of the Herodians were likely Sadducees as well. We see how Jesus answered the Sadducee's questions using scripture to testify of the resurrection to come.

In this message Pastor Matt answers a few questions from Sunday school. Following, we study how Jesus answered the Sadducee's questions using scripture to testify of the resurrection to come.

There are myriad directions we could explore the text of Scripture further. Perhaps you would like to think of one or two this week. Consider for example your stewardship responsibility as one of Adam’s offspring. Think of your marriage situation and how your oneness could be worked out in better fashion. Think of the need to obey God in whatever instructions He has given you, lest you experience more ill consequences of disobedience. Consider that if you trust in God, you will someday get to partake of the tree of life.

In this message Pastor Matt speaks on the doctrine of divine judgement. It is a troubling topic for some, which deals with eternal punishment for sin. All sinners who do not repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus will be eternally separated from Him. The doctrine is abhorrent to those who do not follow Christ.

The Pharisees and Herodians were desperate to find an excuse to get rid of Jesus. They wanted to kill him (John 5:18, 11:53; Luke 13:31) so they could maintain their grip on power. The Pharisees were the religious party, and the Herodians were the political party. Many of the Herodians were likely Sadducees as well. The verbal fluff in verse 16 introduces question was just that — with the purpose to “butter up” Jesus and get Him off guard (as if that was possible?!). The main question is in verse 17: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Let’s try to answer the question in a general way from what we know elsewhere in Scripture.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt dedicates this time to host a questions and answers session.

I recommend you and your students learn about modern cosmology and evolution in order to be conversant with “people of the culture” today. Do not be afraid to hear it taught. But have a strong foundation in creationism. Do not be fooled by the “self-organizing chaos” theory promoted today. It is just a new “learned” form of pagan thought. Learn how to speak kindly to evolution-believers about your own beliefs and where they come from. Be able to show them by manner and content that you are reasonable and have a God-honoring answer for their view. And do not be afraid of science. Use it to glorify God like many scientists of old. Recognize in all of this that God made the universe, and derivatively, he made YOU. You are responsible to Him.

In this message Pastor Matt speaks on the doctrine of divine judgement. It is a troubling topic for some, which deals with eternal punishment for sin. All sinners who do not repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus will be eternally separated from Him. The doctrine is abhorrent to those who do not follow Christ.

Many are invited to the wedding feast of the Lord, but few are actually going to enjoy the feast. There is a broad way and a narrow way. Which way are you headed towards? The wickedness of the recipients who did not accept the kings invitation, had no excuse for refusing His invitation and thus entry to the kingdom of heaven was denied. Those who are not born again cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Believers are citizens awaiting to enter the kingdom of God, the wedding feast! Praise the lord! Christians can look forward to be a participant of the wedding feast, part of the wedding party, sitting at the front table with the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord!

I am struck by how similar the 2015 ISIS offensive in Iraq, which advanced rapidly since June 2014, looked like the Assyrians, and the Babylonians after them. The religion is different, but the brutal tactics are eerily similar. God is not mocked. Galatians 6:7 says that what someone sows, they will certainly, eventually, also reap. Whether soon, in this life, or later in judgment, the results will make clear what kind of seed was planted in life. The Ninevites planted a terrible crop with their wickedness, and received a commensurate harvest. Those who live by the sword will die by it as well (Matt. 26:52). The specific 14 situation of Nineveh offers the general principle that God judges wickedness. Those who oppose God, He will oppose. Those who conspire against God, God has a plan for them too. Those who do damage to God’s people will suffer damage themselves. As they increase their sin, they heap up for themselves increased judgment. Our nation, the United States, is doing that just now. Some sins are practiced by a minority; but those who applaud and support those sins are many more (Romans 1:32; read the entire passage from 1:18-32 and let the full effect sink in). We believe God is righteous. We know He is. We see that He expresses judgment in very harsh and even mocking terms which might offend our sensibilities. But this shows that righteousness is not incompatible with severe judgment against sinners, and we see it in both testaments. What God prophesied through Nahum did indeed happen. In 612 B.C. the kingdom of Assyria was destroyed. God’s word was vindicated, around 40 years after it was written. God’s promises always come to pass—whether for good or for calamity. Bank on it!

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study focusing on the topic of clarity of the gospel. Are you clear on what the gospel really is? What assurance do you have? Do you believe the whole gospel according to the bible?

In this message Pastor Matt speaks on the doctrine of divine judgement. It is a troubling topic for some, which deals with eternal punishment for sin. All sinners who do not repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus will be eternally separated from Him. The doctrine is abhorrent to those who do not follow Christ.

I am struck by how similar the 2015 ISIS offensive in Iraq, which advanced rapidly since June 2014, looked like the Assyrians, and the Babylonians after them. The religion is different, but the brutal tactics are eerily similar. God is not mocked. Galatians 6:7 says that what someone sows, they will certainly, eventually, also reap. Whether soon, in this life, or later in judgment, the results will make clear what kind of seed was planted in life. The Ninevites planted a terrible crop with their wickedness, and received a commensurate harvest. Those who live by the sword will die by it as well (Matt. 26:52). The specific 14 situation of Nineveh offers the general principle that God judges wickedness. Those who oppose God, He will oppose. Those who conspire against God, God has a plan for them too. Those who do damage to God’s people will suffer damage themselves. As they increase their sin, they heap up for themselves increased judgment. Our nation, the United States, is doing that just now. Some sins are practiced by a minority; but those who applaud and support those sins are many more (Romans 1:32; read the entire passage from 1:18-32 and let the full effect sink in). We believe God is righteous. We know He is. We see that He expresses judgment in very harsh and even mocking terms which might offend our sensibilities. But this shows that righteousness is not incompatible with severe judgment against sinners, and we see it in both testaments. What God prophesied through Nahum did indeed happen. In 612 B.C. the kingdom of Assyria was destroyed. God’s word was vindicated, around 40 years after it was written. God’s promises always come to pass—whether for good or for calamity. Bank on it!

Dr. Mark Snoeberger completes the exposition of Habakkuk in chapter 3.

Dr. Mark Snoeberger continues his exposition of the book of Habakkuk in this second of three messages.

We welcome Mark Snoeberger who leads our study in the three chapters of the book of Habakkuk. In chapter 1, Habakkuk asks a question about where was God during the takeover of Jerusalem. We experience similar situations in a 21st century context. What does a response of faith look like when a national or personal disaster occurs? If we can get a handle on what God tells Habakkuk, we can respond faithfully in similar situations.

Paul states it is imperative for the Colossians to put away sinfulness. This applies to us believers today, to put away the things which are causing you to stumble. The examples that Paul provides, he states, to put to death the old sinful man. We must put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

The earlier parable of the two sons ended with Jesus stating that common sinners would enter the kingdom of God while the Pharisees would not. Obviously, this refers to sinners who had repented when told they needed to do so by John the Baptist or by Jesus and His disciples. But repentance was something that the chief priests and elders were totally unwilling to do. The parable of the vinedressers also ends with a mention of the kingdom of God— with Jesus saying that it will be taken from the present leadership of Israel and turned over to a nation which bears its fruit. Such a nation would show forth the fruits of repentance (as John the Baptist called for) and it would render to its owner what is due Him—honor, worship, and service—like the vinedressers should have done to the landowner. What fruits are you bringing to the divine owner of the universe?

In this study, Pastor Matt leads our study on the question, "do you love God?" If you love the Lord, He is faithful to bless you (Romans 8:28). If you do not love the Lord Jesus, you are accursed (1 Corinthians 16:22). You should want to love the Lord God, because He commands it (Deuteronomy 6:5). You should want to love the God, because He loves you (John 3:16). A believer's love for God should be an ceaseless and honoring love to and for Him.

The religious leaders would not say who authorized John’s baptism— heaven or men. They feared people, did not fear God, and would not answer Jesus’s question. John’s call for repentance was clear, and at least some in their number knew they needed that repentance (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, John 19:38-39). But these hard-hearted ones who were trying to trap Jesus in His words had no interest in repenting of anything. So, the Lord told a story to illustrate an important point. What a rich parable. The Lord used it to invite the religious leaders to think (v. 28). We should think as well. In just a few lines, we are brought into a very deep theological matter of talk versus walk, of profession versus possession, of no repentance versus real repentance, of the Father’s patience and of the way of righteousness.

I am struck by how similar the 2015 ISIS offensive in Iraq, which advanced rapidly since June 2014, looked like the Assyrians, and the Babylonians after them. The religion is different, but the brutal tactics are eerily similar. God is not mocked. Galatians 6:7 says that what someone sows, they will certainly, eventually, also reap. Whether soon, in this life, or later in judgment, the results will make clear what kind of seed was planted in life. The Ninevites planted a terrible crop with their wickedness, and received a commensurate harvest. Those who live by the sword will die by it as well (Matt. 26:52). The specific 14 situation of Nineveh offers the general principle that God judges wickedness. Those who oppose God, He will oppose. Those who conspire against God, God has a plan for them too. Those who do damage to God’s people will suffer damage themselves. As they increase their sin, they heap up for themselves increased judgment. Our nation, the United States, is doing that just now. Some sins are practiced by a minority; but those who applaud and support those sins are many more (Romans 1:32; read the entire passage from 1:18-32 and let the full effect sink in). We believe God is righteous. We know He is. We see that He expresses judgment in very harsh and even mocking terms which might offend our sensibilities. But this shows that righteousness is not incompatible with severe judgment against sinners, and we see it in both testaments. What God prophesied through Nahum did indeed happen. In 612 B.C. the kingdom of Assyria was destroyed. God’s word was vindicated, around 40 years after it was written. God’s promises always come to pass—whether for good or for calamity. Bank on it!

We ask again: what is the source of authority for how you live your life? God, or you? If you, why do you believe so much in yourself? Do you have enough knowledge, experience, and wisdom to make the right decisions? Be honest and realistic with your answer! For instance: do you know, in yourself, what happens to a person after death? If you do not know that in yourself, how do you even have a prayer of guiding your steps aright in this life? Why should I believe in your ability to do that as over against God’s infinitely wise and experienced ability to do far better? Remember, there is a way that seems right to a man, but... (Prov. 16:25). Our lives are not our own, and it is not in our ultimate purview to direct our own steps (Jeremiah 10:23). If Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his humanity, was not His own authority, how could you dream to be your own authority? He did the will of God, and thus modeled for us how we ought to think of ourselves. Do you fear God? Do your objections to His moral demands really justify you to ignore those demands and try to make up your own morality? Real joy comes when you can honestly say that you are living your life in accordance with the authority of God. When He is your Lord, guide, boss, teacher, counselor, etc. then you can have confidence you are doing the right stuff with your life.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Jude. In this study, we see how Jesus warned of false prophets that would arise, how peoples hearts would grow cold, and how only those who kept the faith in Jesus Christ would be saved.

Jesus went into Jerusalem, looked around, saw the sorry state of things in the temple and city, and went back to Bethany for the evening’s rest. He will use a fig tree to teach the disciples about what he (and they) have just experienced. A barren tree reminds you to live a fruitful life so as to have a good judgment before God. Our prayers can be powerful, but they have to come from a righteous, forgiving life.

I am struck on the initial reading of this passage that Jesus went into Jerusalem, visited the temple, saw it needed some tidying up, and then cleaned it out in preparation to work there in the upcoming days. He was cleaning up his workspace! When Jesus came into the city, he was making a public announcement of Himself as king. Verse 17 tells of our Lord’s departure back to Bethany to stay for the night. He did not have a home in Jerusalem to stay and the city was packed with worshippers, so he stayed where he had made other arrangements. Tuesday would see continued confrontation with the religious leaders. Notice how the Lord judged some of the people but also exercised mercy toward others. Behold the goodness and severity of God (Romans 11:22).

God’s rule over the world is exalted. He oversees the fish, the storm, the sirocco, the worm, the city, and everything else. He sovereignly gives mercy to whom He wills. He cares for the world’s inhabitants, even wicked ones. He has compassion on people. We submit to God’s rule, not deny His grace to people. But judgment is not postponed forever. Jonah needed to learn Matthew 7:2 and James 2:13. If you do not like God’s mercy, then don’t take it for yourself. His own self-interest should have taught him that, but he was not concerned for others. As for you, do you have any Jonah-like tendencies?

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Jude. In this study, we see how Jesus warned of false prophets that would arise, how peoples hearts would grow cold, and how only those who kept the faith in Jesus Christ would be saved.

Some in Jerusalem recognized Jesus as their coming King. Others were clueless. All this took place on “Palm Sunday,” and it could even be as specifically pinpointed as Nisan 9 in A.D. 30. See the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-26 which gives us warrant to speak with such precision. Given this, the people and the leaders should have been expecting Him. If only they had known… (Luke 19:42).

Has Jesus shown compassion toward you? Did you have faith to be given your sight? From what blindness has the Lord delivered you? Do you now follow Him?

Therefore “today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2) because a day is coming for every person when God will declare that enough is enough. Years of opportunity to recognize our need of God’s forgiveness will come to an end. But be assured that if you repent, you will find as the Ninevites did that God is compassionate and gracious. He is not a mean deity whatsoever. We are getting closer to the message of Jonah. The book was not written primarily to provide an illustration for Jesus to use about His death and resurrection, although it serves that purpose. It was not written primarily about the Ninevites. It has something to do with Jonah and his understanding of God. The repentance of Nineveh happened in those individuals alive at the time. It did not transfer to future generations. Each generation must do its own repentance.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Jude. In this first study, we see how Jude warned of false prophets that would arise, how people's hearts would grow cold, and how only those who kept the faith in Jesus Christ would be saved.

In what way are you like James and John, or their mother, or the other disciples? Do you have a “I want greatness” mindset? It can masquerade as an “I love attention” way of thinking. Or, “I love the limelight,” or “I like standing in front of a group of people and talking.” Or, “I want his job,” or “where I am at in life is not good enough for me.” This is much different than a “How can I help you?” attitude. Is there an area of your life, or a person in your life, that calls forth the kind of service the Lord is talking about? Do you live for self or for others? Is there a way you can serve the body of Christ in a better way?

Think! Do not bumble through life ignoring God and His word. It is critical that you keep this information in mind—that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures—and according to His prophecy—and rose again from the dead. I am so grateful for that. Now, what to do about that? Well, one thing is to celebrate the Lord’s Table as a solemn but also joyful remembrance. With a “joyful grief” at what the Lord has done, let us partake.

God did indeed rescue Jonah. He commanded the fish as only God can do. Just like He prepared the fish (1:17) and sent the storm (1:4), God is sovereign ruler of all things. Jonah had to experience one final unpleasant situation, but undoubtedly, he was glad for it—being vomited out of the fish. He had a few other consequences to deal with for some days, like needing a serious bath, food, sleep, etc. At least he was back in “the land of the living.” He would have another chance to obey God. Following this mornings message, we were delighted to see three of our youth become baptized! Praise the Lord!

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Jude. In this first study, we see how Jesus warned of false prophets that would arise, how peoples hearts would grow cold, and how only those who kept the faith in Jesus Christ would be saved.

Dear friends, we have a great God. If we are still sitting in the marketplace waiting to be hired, we need to take up the standing offer of employment by God Himself. And then, no matter how long we have been "working" for God (living for Him), we need to keep on until the end of the day, no matter how hot and sweaty we might be. And we should thank Him all the while!

In this message Pastor Matt leads tonight's service addressing this question: "What are your thoughts about how we are to think scripturally about our second amendment rights?

The sailors were already afraid because of the great storm that was upon them (1:5). To their credit, they became even more afraid after Jonah told them about his connection to the LORD who created the sea and land. They understood that Jonah was the cause of the danger to their lives, and their loss of goods that they just threw overboard. Remember we ended last time by noting that the sailors asked Jonah why he ran from God? He was not a murderer or some other reprobate. He was a man who knew what His God had told him to do but did not do it. These men were incredulous because in their own devotion to their “gods” they understood that there were certain things you had to do, and certain ways you had to do it, and if you violated those, you would get in trouble with that god. Obviously this thinking is awash in pagan philosophy, but there was enough of a conscience and the law of God still in their inner being, placed there by God in the creation of humanity, that they knew intuitively Jonah was doing something very dumb by disobeying the God he professed to fear. All the events we have read about were under the direct control of God, as is everything in this world. As difficult as things may seem for you, remember that God is in charge. Remember that you may have brought upon yourself some of your situation by sinning against the Lord. Or, maybe not. But consider this--if you are running from God in your life, and things are not going well, you should really consider changing course before you damage other people’s lives around you and God metaphorically throws you overboard to straighten you up!

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Jude. In this first study, we see how Jesus warned of false prophets that would arise, how peoples hearts would grow cold, and how only those who kept the faith in Jesus Christ would be saved.

Dear friends, we have a great God. If we are still sitting in the marketplace waiting to be hired, we need to take up the standing offer of employment by God Himself. And then, no matter how long we have been "working" for God (living for Him), we need to keep on until the end of the day, no matter how hot and sweaty we might be. And we should thank Him all the while!

The Lord’s three-plus year ministry is compressed into a fairly small amount of text, and Matthew has to keep moving efficiently from one event to the next. After teaching on marriage, divorce, those who are gifted to be single, and blessing some little children, the Lord is approached by a wealthy young man with a question about his soul. There is a lot we can criticize about this fellow, but give him this: he had some concerns about his own soul. That is more than we can say for some people. The statement of verse 30 about the first being last and the last first, introduces the parable of the workers in chapter 20. We will have to wait until we can study that in depth to get the full effect.

The fearful mariners ask Jonah why in the world he did this. Out of the mouth of pagans! Look at this situation. The unbelievers recognize that if you believe in God, and claim that He created everything, and say that He is the Lord of all the earth, then you should be obeying Him. It is only logical. How could you not? And it is the same way today. When the unbeliever has a clearer vision of what religion is supposed to do for your conduct than does the follower of Christ, there is a problem.

In this message Pastor Matt hosts a questions and answers session, addressing the following questions: 1) Why does Pastor Matt not address issues from the Pulpit, focusing on modern issues? 2) Romans 3:30 says that one God will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Why are two different prepositions used? 3) Where did all the workers go?

As he ministers, the Lord instructs His disciples not to treat children like a nuisance, but to bless them. More importantly, he takes the opportunity to remind his audience that it is child-like faith that is the distinguishing mark of heavenly citizens. Without that, you are a child of the devil.The Lord left that location and went on to another place to continue His ministry. But we are left with the question of how to apply this text. We intuitively understand that we must care deeply for young people. The church and its individuals must minister to little ones. The society at large and its laws must protect them from harms of all sorts. Yet today, we do not protect, but rather expose our young ones to dangerous and immoral ideas. We do not teach them religious instruction and thus by omission make many think that religion is irrelevant. Again, and more importantly, we are reminded that kingdom citizenry is not opened up to self-sufficient people. It is for those who are like children in their estimation of themselves.

This passage inevitably raises controversy. I trust you can handle differences between believers with grace and mercy. I have taught for years that the standard for Christians is no divorce, but if there is divorce, no remarriage. That is clear regardless of your emotions or experience in the matter. The bottom line for me is that God has established marriage as a very high and holy calling. It is no joke, and it is to be maintained, jealously guarded, protected, nurtured, strengthened, etc.. We ought not focus on the exception clause, as if that is the main point of this passage—because it is not. It is only a sub-point that might apply in certain difficult situations, but does not soften the reality that divorce is SIN or demonstrates a deep-rooted SIN problem in marriage.

What would I tell you if I could be as open, transparent, and honest as possible? What if I did not have to worry about hurting your feelings? What would I share with you?I have probably left out a few (dozen) thoughts. Let me know if you think advice on other topics would be helpful. But I am confident that if you focus on basics such as reading your Bible, making disciples, keeping yourself accountable, engaging the battle against sin in your own life, and being faithful in attending church meetings—you will do well. And that reminds me of Acts 15:29, but I hope that none of the problems mentioned there are problems for us today. A helpful resource if you want to read on these topics and others is Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life. After I wrote these notes, I looked at his table of contents and found that I covered many of the same topics he does, though he does so in far greater detail.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff shares his study on the key differences in variations of the Holy Bible.

This passage inevitably raises controversy. I trust you can handle differences between believers with grace and mercy. I have taught for years that the standard for Christians is no divorce, but if there is divorce, no remarriage. That is clear regardless of your emotions or experience in the matter. The bottom line for me is that God has established marriage as a very high and holy calling. It is no joke, and it is to be maintained, jealously guarded, protected, nurtured, strengthened, etc.. We ought not focus on the exception clause, as if that is the main point of this passage—because it is not. It is only a sub-point that might apply in certain difficult situations, but does not soften the reality that divorce is SIN or demonstrates a deep-rooted SIN problem in marriage.

In tonight's message, Pastor Postiff answered questions about gender, slavery, and college for young people.

True Christians have been forgiven a mountain of sin against God and have been welcomed into God’s family as justified saints. God’s children act like God their Father does (Matthew 5:48; Philippians 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2, 10, 5:2). God is forgiving. Therefore, we should be too. We have been forgiven so much more sin than we can count or list; it is relatively nothing for us to forgive an offender against us. Look at the examples of Christ (Luke 23:34) and Stephen (Acts 7:60). This means that we always live with an attitude and heart ready to forgive because we understand our own wickedness and the great pardon we have received. When an offender comes to us and asks us to forgive, that readiness is exercised by actually forgiving the person. Thus, the offended comes together with the offender and a “transaction” of forgiveness is finalized. The professing Christian who does not understand this and/or does not practice it, thus demonstrates that they do not truly understand the forgiveness of God. He or she apparently did not experience that forgiveness, or else would automatically understand the need to practice real forgiveness. The practical challenge for us is not to intellectually understand what we have studied today. The difficulty is to do it when we have been hurt. When our hurt consumes us, we demonstrate selfishness and not love for others. This is when our heart gets clogged up with self and cannot extend forgiveness to another. This is not godly. In another side of this, we need to know how to apologize and ask forgiveness. The two men in the story had a desperate need—huge debt that they could not pay. They had no problem asking for the debt to be forgiven because they understood the consequences if they did not. We all have a similar need in our sin-debt toward God, and our sins toward others. But the problem is pride. We do not want to admit we are wrong. We think somehow we can avoid paying our debt to God or that we can make the things toward others go away with time or other clever techniques. We need to humble ourselves and ask to be forgiven by admitting our sin to God and to others whom we have wronged. Far better that, than carrying around unresolved guilt all the time.

In this mornings message we study that which is impossible with man was solved in Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross for our sins and providing the hope in Him and through Him, eternal salvation with Him. Amen!

In this message guess speaker Drew Nelson speaks on the creation account from Genesis 1, Life in God's Garden from Genesis 2, the Temptation and Fall of Men from Genesis 3, how Abraham Interceded for Sodom from Genesis 18, and a look at Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction from Genesis 19.

The recent troubles in our world have been a heavy weight to carry in our hearts. We long for world peace, harmony amongst all peoples, safety for our children, the absence of violence, true unbiased justice, pure and useful politics, moral leadership, rich agriculture, economic freedom and opportunity, prosperity, medical and technological advancements, stability of international borders, and the general flourishing of the human race. We must remember that present afflictions are momentary and light compared to the eternal and exceeding weight of glory that will be revealed in the children of God (2 Cor. 4:17). Despite the absence of that wonderful state of things today, the Christian God promises—and will deliver—a kingdom on earth that will put to shame even the best that this world has offered over 6,000 years of history. Christians will have the opportunity to share in the glory of Christ (1 Peter 5:1). One of God’s purposes in saving us is that we would possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that will be on display in a big way in the soon-coming kingdom era. Yet for now we groan, earnestly desiring a better body (2 Cor. 5:2-4). The entire creation groans under the weight of the curse due to sin (Romans 8:22-23) and awaits the full bodily redemption of the people of God. When that happens, then the world will be under the control of moral and upright leaders. It will occur when Christ returns and inaugurates what the Bible calls the kingdom of the God of Heaven (Daniel 2:44). In effect, that kingdom will endure forever as God works out His plan to bring about the end of the current world and re-create a new Heaven and new earth and what we think of as “heaven” begins. Before Heaven is the kingdom age of unparalleled blessing on this earth. It will display at least eight glorious characteristics.

Boys and girls are called to model biblical characteristics and attributes, based on their gender. In a world of sexual confusion and perversion, it's critical Christians raise their children following true biblical models.

The Lord Jesus just said (18:14) that it is not the will of the Father in heaven that any of the little ones—ones who believe in Jesus—should perish. We learned from that paragraph about finding lost sheep that the Lord cares for His people, and none of them will be permanently lost. They might stray for a while, but not forever. It is because the Lord desires every sheep to be rescued that He instructs His disciples (and us) about what to do when a professing brother strays from the flock. The sinner does not do that by wandering to the mountains like a sheep with Alzheimer’s or dementia. He does so by living in sin and not repenting. For the church family, it is imperative to take the steps necessary to persuade the brother to repent and come back to the fold because God desires His people to be safe in the fold. The ministry of the church toward unrepentant sinners is often called church discipline. Regardless of the name of it, its goal is to bring sinners back, not push them away!

The Lord Jesus just said (18:14) that it is not the will of the Father in heaven that any of the little ones—ones who believe in Jesus—should perish. We learned from that paragraph about finding lost sheep that the Lord cares for His people, and none of them will be permanently lost. They might stray for a while, but not forever. It is because the Lord desires every sheep to be rescued that He instructs His disciples (and us) about what to do when a professing brother strays from the flock. The sinner does not do that by wandering to the mountains like a sheep with Alzheimer’s or dementia. He does so by living in sin and not repenting. For the church family, it is imperative to take the steps necessary to persuade the brother to repent and come back to the fold because God desires His people to be safe in the fold. The ministry of the church toward unrepentant sinners is often called church discipline. Regardless of the name of it, its goal is to bring sinners back, not push them away!

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study, focused on the interactions that Paul had with the church. Paul praises God, greets his fellow believers with greetings, and praises the Lord for His grace on those to proclaim Christ as Lord. These may have been his last words to them. But they were meaningful words.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study on the topic of what signs children should be showing that they are genuinely saved. We cover nine critical characteristics that show their walk with Christ is genuine. This message was designed as a help to Christian parents, both to examine and to work on cultivating in their children the characteristics of genuine salvation. The reality is that these characteristics apply to all believers, so these are good tests for all of us.

Some of the content of Ecclesiastes is a bit depressing as Solomon explores the so-called vanities of life. But from this exploration, Solomon drew some very good conclusions. His goal was to “see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives” (2:3). Without elevating the importance of one part of Scripture over another, we study some of those conclusions, including the “judicious enjoyment of life” motif that is common throughout the book.

In the beginning of the letter, Paul wrote that he thanked God for the Philippian Christians, and particularly for their “fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.” We remarked that this had to do with not only their common sharing of life in Christ with the apostle Paul, but with the fact that they shared material things to assist Paul in his spiritual ministry. In this way, the epistle to the Philippians is something of a thank you note from Paul to the church for their faithfulness in supporting his work. In this section of chapter 4, Paul comes around to that thanksgiving theme again. There is a lot to chew on here: the example of the Philippian church in supporting missionary ministry; Paul’s way of looking at the gift both from his side as recipient but also from the donor’s side; and the confidence that God will supply our needs in Christ, with a view toward those good works.

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple. However, God sees that nation of Israel had set there priorities before His. God corrects His people's priorities.

A key factor in our future judgment is how we treat other Christians and how we handle sin in our own lives, including: 1) Offenses Toward Christ’s Believers 2) Offenses Toward Yourself and 3) Despising Christians.

In order to be considered the greatest in the kingdom of God, we must focus on serving others. The disciples asked Christ who would be the greatest, His answer: Be as little children, in humility, serving and loving one another, and humbling ourselves to God's instruction by learning and applying His word in our lives.

Remember what we learned last week? We were thinking about how to experience peace in our inner person despite whatever circumstances may befall us. It is not easy. But we said that the whole package of verses 4-9 is critical. We cannot simply use the one weapon of prayer and expect have our anxieties melt away while we ignore other Biblical instruction about sanctification, our conduct toward others, and our thought life. We must rejoice in the Lord, be gracious people, stop being anxious, pray, give thanks, think on good and godly things, and conduct ourselves in a way that agrees with what the Bible has presented to us. Our prayer will be effective under such conditions. This is the way that the peace of God will guard us, and the God of peace will be with us. Peace comes not through a mystical means that happens apart from holiness. “There is no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). False prophets “seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace” (Ezek. 13:10). Read Psalm 27:1-3 and Psalm 91:1-16. Because we make God our refuge, our delight, our life, we can walk confidently in Him.

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple. However, God sees that nation of Israel had set there priorities before His. God corrects His people's priorities.

Death and taxes. The Lord’s death was inevitable because it was planned before the foundation of the world. And we do pay our taxes, so as to not cause trouble—and we are directed by God to do so anyway. Yes, even though we are sons of the Most High (Luke 6:35).

Idolatry today might look like it did in ancient Israel. But it may also be more secret, in one’s heart. Ezekiel 14:3-7 alerts us to this possibility. You cannot have things in your heart that rank higher than God, and then expect God to answer your inquiries as if your relationship with Him is just fine. Any failure in this area of divided loyalty or failure to flee from idolatry, etc. is reversible. God is gracious and will receive you if you turn away from your idols, from your self-centeredness, from your sin. God is merciful toward us sinners because His Son has freely offered Himself in our place as a substitute sacrifice for sinners. He who did no sin took on Himself our sins so that He could pay our penalty instead of us having to do it ourselves. If you believe in Him for salvation, and Him alone, He will rescue you from sin and cleanse you and put you into His family!

The Philippian church needed the constant reminder to be glad in the Lord. I believe that we need that same kind of reminder very frequently because day by day we forget to be thankful to God. We elevate other things above God and make them our constant thought (the object of our anxiety). But by living with a gentle spirit, a rejoicing inner person, a thankful heart, and a praying disposition, we can overcome anxious thoughts with great success.

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple. However, God sees that nation of Israel had set there priorities before His. God corrects His people's priorities.

In this message we are pleased to have Missionary Tom Gibbons share his study of God's word, focused on Romans 1:16.

In tonight's message, Pastor Matt shares a quick guide on the deity of Jesus Christ from the scriptures. We study the testimonies of those who walked and talked with Jesus Christ, those who proclaimed Christ to be God, those who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, scripture that references Yahweh as mentioned in the Old Testament, Angels worship the Lord Jesus, Isaiah saw Jesus' glory, Jesus does what God is able to do, and Jesus being One with the Father.

These verses cross paragraph boundaries, but a preacher is not prohibited from treating two adjacent paragraphs in a single message! The Bible books are meant to be read sequentially, and this is what we have done. Doing so forced us to try to understand the connection between the end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4. Thought spent on that kind of question—in all your Bible reading—is thought well spent. If the text says “therefore,” then it is our job to figure out the connection between the parts and not let them just stand alone and ignore the glue that connects them. In this situation, our transformed lives, both now and in the future, call on us to stand firm in the faith of Christ. One very practical way we do that is to deal with the flies in the ointment that sometimes trouble us. Humble ourselves and admit we are wrong, and need to change, and need to be unselfish, and need to forgive, and need to reconcile, and need to admit we do not know everything!

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple.

In this message we are going to learn about a boy’s severe health issue that was actually caused by a demon, and the faith that is required to live the life of a follower of Jesus. Faith in God is not the same as confidence in self. Perhaps their faith in God had waned and an attitude of self-sufficiency had crept it. Let us examine ourselves to see if we are disobedient to God because we are relying on our own strength or not trusting fully in Him.

The Lord may have shown them this vision to not only confirm the prophetic word in 16:28, but also as an encouragement for when the future disciples undergo persecution. They would be able to remember that the Lord showed what is coming—a glorious future kingdom. A very important point to take away is that God said to “hear him.” This means that Christ supersedes Moses and Elijah. It may sound wrong to your ears of you are focused on the Hebrew Bible, but this is the God of Moses and Elijah speaking. We must hear Jesus Christ. His message is critical.

In this message we study 1 Corinthians 15, focused on the resurrection of Jesus and how it is solidly proven. Not only is the resurrection of Jesus true, but the resurrection of all of us as well. This is the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. Let us give gratitude to God for it, and live accordingly. A year ago when speaking on this topic, I wrote this: “But I want to ask a more practical question: How would your day-to-day life look different if you believed there is no resurrection? Would there be a practical difference compared to how you live now? Do you live in practice the same way as you would live if there were no resurrection? “Putting it another way, does the resurrection of Christ have an impact on how you live Monday through Saturday? In what way can people tell you believe the resurrection of Christ? How does it change your conduct or outlook on…everything? … Do you handle trials differently than the world? Do you approach your work with a different perspective? Do you approach living for the Lord with a resurrection mindset.

Jesus is not presently hanging on a cross in weakness. He is not helplessly lifeless in a cave. He did not swoon and then die the death of a normal man. Instead, He died by crucifixion and was raised by the powerful working of God (Acts 2:24, 2:32, 3:15, 3:26, 4:10, 5:30, 10:40, 13:30, 13:33, 13:37, 26:8; Romans 7:4, 10:9; 1 Cor. 6:14, 15:15; Gal. 1:1; 1 Peter 1:21). He is “in power” in a new office, sitting at the right hand of God awaiting His enemies to be made His footstool (Heb 10:13). Meanwhile, He is the head of the church (Eph. 1:22, 5:23, Col. 1:18) and reigns as God, the sovereign potentate over all things. Those people who are “in Christ” by faith will likewise be raised up with Him physically (2 Cor. 4:14) just as we were spiritually (Col. 2:12, 3:1). We have that certain hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4). He is not the Son of God in weakness—He is the Son of God in power! We are partners with Him and have access to His power. We know He has it, because He was raised from the dead directly to that place of power, by the power of God that works in us who believe (2 Cor. 4:7, Eph. 3:20). With that power we can give testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33). We can know the power of his resurrection. And we know that the second death has no power over those who believe!

Jesus Christ has addressed all of humanity, both living and dead, with His work. Those alive at the time of His death and those who come thereafter, like ourselves, know what He has done and can respond to it. Those who died during the wicked time of Noah know their judgment is sealed, like all others of unbelief during the Old Testament times. To those who rejected God during the time of Noah, Christ’s message was a message of judgment. But to those who are alive right now today, it is a message of the provision of salvation—and, if rejected, of certain future judgment. Christ died for sinners just like us all, the perfect Lamb for sinful people, in order to bring us to God. He died and then rose again from the dead. In between His death and resurrection, He made a proclamation of his victory over sin and death, that victory which we can share with Him if we turn from sin and acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. Christ’s work and message is a message to you as an individual, and to the world of individuals who wonder what Good Friday is all about. Simple question: what are you going to do with it? Are you so happy with your life apart from Jesus that you will await the Lord’s proclamation of judgment to you too? Or will you believe in Him now so that your sins can be placed into Him and judged back on that day when He once died for sins, the just for the unjust, with the purpose of bringing us to God?

In this message we look at two verses of Scripture located in Matthew 16:18-19, where we address misinterpretations on three ideas: 1) the rock 2) gates of Hades 3) and the keys of the Kingdom.

We last were reading in Matthew 16 where Matthew tells us the Lord changed His focus to preparing the disciples for his impending suffering, death, and resurrection. Peter did not like that whole idea, so he rebuked Jesus for talking about it. The Lord in turn rebuked Peter because Peter was doing the Devil’s work by trying to dissuade Jesus from doing God’s will. Notice that Jesus is not saying Peter is the Devil, nor is Jesus “talking to the Devil” through Peter, or the Devil is indwelling Peter, or some other mystical kind of thing. It is simply that Peter is talking like the Devil in his flesh. Heaven informed Peter about the identity of Jesus, but here Peter was failing Heaven and instead Hell was informing him to embrace the man-pleasing idea that Jesus should not die. Even though there could have been some more direct devilish influence here, do not excuse Peter! We should not think that Peter’s mind and desires are out of the picture, as if Satan were controlling him. That is not the case—it was Peter’s distaste at the idea of Jesus dying, Peter’s desire for Jesus to live, Peter’s rebuke of Jesus that is at issue here. Peter really felt and thought those things because he cared more about the things of men than those of God. This makes the text all the more applicable to us, because our affections for the things of the world are indeed ours. We need to repent of them, and not simply blame them on the Devil! Full disclosure is given: the Christian life is not easy because of the obstacles of the flesh, the Devil, and the world. You also know the relative costs of choosing to follow the Lord or not. You know all that ahead of time so that you can make a wise decision about what you want to do. You too can use your brain to consider the counterfactual scenarios: if I follow Christ, things will turn out generally in this-and-such way. But if I do not follow Christ, things will turn out in this other way. I exhort you: use this knowledge of the choice you have to let your conjecture about living for self to die in your stead. Let the thought of living for self perish—but don’t you perish!

Last time we learned about energetically pursuing Christ because our highest priority as a Christian is to know Him and be like Him. That is what the apostle Paul was all about, and so we should be also. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2 Cor. 4:17) Follow Paul’s example; leave behind the junk and press forward toward Christ-likeness. Beware of the false believers who want to share their Christ-denying misery with you and recognize that you are citizens of heaven. You have a name better than to permit yourself to wallow in the world’s mess.

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple.

In this message Pastor Matt shares this evenings message on how Jesus introduced His death and resurrection, which includes the following themes: 1) Jesus Prophesies About His Upcoming Suffering 2) Peter’s Indignant Response 3) Jesus Replies with a Focus on the Things of God.

According to multiple passages in the Bible, a key point of gospel preaching is that Jesus is the Christ. The following texts use this pattern: John 20:31, Acts 9:22, 17:3, 18:5, 18:28, 1 John 2:22, 1 John 5:1. The approach that Paul used was to show what the Old Testament said about Messiah (Christ). Then he explained the identity of and events surrounding the life of Jesus. Then, he put an equals sign between the two, saying Jesus = Christ. This exact identity is critical to correctly understand the plan of God. Denying it is the same as denying the gospel, for to deny Christ’s person and/or work is to deny the gospel. Jesus concludes the section with a command that the disciples tell no one about his identity. This was unfortunate in one sense: people need to know who He is. But it was right in another sense: revealing this information too early and too widely did not fit the timeline that Jesus had to follow that He would be killed at just the right time, in Jerusalem, around Passover, etc. If you have a brain-freeze when witnessing for Jesus, just do this: show that Jesus is the Christ. Remember that: Jesus is the Christ. Go to the Old Testament for a few verses, and then to the New Testament for a few, and tie the two together. That will prime the pump and get the conversation going. Examples: Connect Isaiah 53 with the events of suffering of Christ in the gospels. Show Psalm 110:1 with its New Testament quotations such as Heb. 1:13, Matt. 22:44, Acts 2:34-35, Mark 12:36, Heb. 10:12, Eph. 1:20, Heb. 1:3, 8:1, 10:13.

There is no resting on laurels in the Christian life as if we have "arrived" at whatever it is we think we have arrived at. There is no such thing as a “lazy Christian.” There is always "pressing on" the upward way, new heights gained every day, etc. But the author of that hymn, Johnson Oatman, inconsistently it seems to me, believed in complete sanctification, “the washing of the soul of a true believer from the remains of sin.”1 That appears, on his view, to happen in this life. No, no no! We move from one level of glory to the next until we reach final glorification (2 Cor. 3:18) in the presence of Christ. There is a life-focus here that keeps its eye on Jesus all the time. He saves us from start to finish and our life is to be growing in our relationship to Him, our likeness to Him, our pursuit of Him and His heavenly calling.

In this message Pastor Matt reviews how the date of Resurrection Sunday and Passover is observed, on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring. The Bible tells us how to observe the Lord's death and resurrection, whereby believers partake in communion and participate in the memorial significance of the Lord's Table.

The first thing I noticed is that my NKJV MacArthur study Bible had a title above this section which was “Withdrawal of Jesus—Mark 8:13-21.” This is a bad heading, and I believe in this case it is the responsibility not of MacArthur, but of Thomas Nelson’s editors of the Bible text and reference material. (These headings are not part of the original text.) The errant heading reflects only the narrative of the immediately prior verse, both in Matthew 16:4 and in the parallel passage of Mark 8:13. It does not reflect what is taught in the section that follows. In the upcoming three paragraphs, there is no mention there of Jesus withdrawing, no details of his departure, and no reasons are explained as to why he left. Instead, the section is all about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The section heading should at least reflect that if not also include what is being said about this leaven. At Mark 8:14, the heading is “Disciples Do Not Understand Matt. 16:5-12.” This much better reflects what the section is about. Lesson? Take the headings in your study Bible with a grain of salt. Compare them carefully to the text the follows, and see if you agree with the heading or not. In this case, the NKJV editors get a failing grade. You and I too need to take heed and beware of false doctrine. It is all around, it is subtle, and it is deadly. The ways of our world today, including tolerance and promotion of all forms of wickedness, follow-your-heart beliefs, etc. are leavens that we need to get out of our lives. A little of that goes a long way to make a mess of your thinking and consequent behavior.

What are we to make of the fact that the word disciple does not appear in the epistles? Not much. The narrative form of the gospels and Acts lends itself to the use of that noun for Christians. The epistles are written to disciples and do not have to say the word for the target audience to be understood. Disciples look like the kind of people described by Jesus in the gospels.

The resurrection of Christ is a stupendous display of divine power. It is the standard unit of measurement of God’s omnipotence. It is like the parting of the Red Sea or feeding of the 5,000 or healing a handicapped person instantly. It is a first-rate miracle of God. But even though it was a powerful event, there is no way the resurrection will have any meaningful influence in your life unless you accept that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He died and was resurrected for you, in your place. Then, Christ can live in your heart through faith and you can have his resurrection power operative in your own life. Are you reading these notes and realizing that you need to come to Jesus to be saved from sin, and thus come to know this resurrection power? Perhaps you are living a life that has a lot of sin in it and finding that resurrection power hard to see or experience. Where are your priorities? Where is your thinking? Do they match what Paul tells us here? Have you: 1. Abandoned your confidence in yourself? 2. Had a major change in thinking on the value of your resume, that your former religious confidence was actually worthless? 3. Changed how you understand God accepts a person, not by works of righteousness, but by His grace? 4. Experienced and implemented a major change in priorities, with knowing Christ at the very top of your life goals? 5. Gained a new future outlook, striving toward the resurrection from the dead?

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study, where we learn about the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, how God works in Christians, and how we can better support our missionaries.The Apostle Paul loved the Christians in Philippi. He had seen them in their pre-salvation state and was privileged in that God used him to lead them to saving faith in Jesus Christ. He had baptized some of them and formed the infant church. He may have directed Luke to minister there in his absence; he was moved with gratitude that the church remembered him and supported him and partnered with him in his missions work. He prayed frequently for them.

The last time we encountered the Pharisees and company was at the beginning of chapter 15, where they were criticizing the Lord’s disciples for not washing their hands before eating. In their way of thinking, this caused ceremonial defilement. The Lord corrected two errors in their thinking. First, eating with unwashed hands does not cause defilement; rather, defilement comes from a person’s inner nature. Second, they placed more weight on their traditions than they did on the words of God, with the effect that they voided God’s word. Now they come with another test. Hard-hearted unbelief is shown here in the lives of the Pharisees and Sadducees. We must make sure that we do not have any scraps of that kind of attitude in our hearts. There is a lesson not just in avoiding the example of the Pharisees, but more positively in how the Lord answers their inquiry. He rebukes them for being focused on the wrong things. How often we too are wrongly focused— not on the things of Jesus, but on the things of the world.

We started tonight's service with a question and answer session led by Pastor Matt. Additionally, we continue our study on Answering Islamic Objections to Christianity, where Pastor Matt was inspired to respond to some material covered in chapter 14 of Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. As this is the main source material for these notes, there may be variant Islamic beliefs that are not covered here. He is also drawing on personal experience speaking with Muslims. What do we conclude? The Christian can successfully answer Islamic objections to Christianity, including to the Bible and to the person and work of Christ. We can do so by careful attention to the context of words, and to the theology of the person of Christ.

Christ died on a cross and bore in His own body our sins that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18). This destroys all other righteousness-seeking programs in the sight of God. Christianity is not a righteousness-earning system. We are talking about Paul’s highest desire, a total change in his thinking from his prior legalism. Now his life is animated and directed toward Christ, the person of the God-man. He wants to fully know Christ— resurrection power, sufferings, righteousness, etc. Is Christ your highest prize, deepest desire?

Pastor Matt was inspired to respond to some material covered in chapter 14 of Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. As this is the main source material for these notes, there may be variant Islamic beliefs that are not covered here. He is also drawing on personal experience speaking with Muslims. What do we conclude? The Christian can successfully answer Islamic objections to Christianity, including to the Bible and to the person and work of Christ. We can do so by careful attention to the context of words, and to the theology of the person of Christ.

Miracles authenticate Jesus as a messenger of God, and more than that, as the Son of God. How can we be sure? Look at John 5:18-46. The Lord claims equality with the Father, is able to give life, is responsible for all judgment (Acts 17:30-31), and will raise the dead. These are functions of God, not man. Beyond that, Jesus calls them to hear the testimony of witnesses to his claims: John the Baptist, the greater witness of His miraculous works; the Father who testified of Jesus (remember His voice from heaven?), and the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets of old. We could also add the angels from Luke 2:11, and the New Testament Scriptures. Their cumulative testimony of these witnesses make it clear Who we are reading about here: the Son of God.

What are we to make of the fact that the word disciple does not appear in the epistles? Not much. The narrative form of the gospels and Acts lends itself to the use of that noun for Christians. The epistles are written to disciples and do not have to say the word for the target audience to be understood. Disciples look like the kind of people described in the gospels.

Check yourself out against verse 3 again. Make sure you have the right focus, and your boasting is in the Lord and not in your own fleshly accomplishments. Make sure that you are in fact serving God. Are you wary of bad doctrine that would oppose the true gospel (v. 2)? And finally (v. 1), are you rejoicing in the Lord no matter what your circumstances might be?

In this message Pastor Matt hosts a questions and answers session, including the following: 1) If God is loving, how could he command the Israelites to wipe out whole cities of Canaanites during the conquest of Joshua? 2) What would have happened if Adam and Eve had made a fruit pie with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil and eaten both? 3) When does a Christian get their resurrected body?

A casual reading of this passage could raise some wrong and even blasphemous ideas, especially in our overly sensitive culture. For example: Was the Lord rude and unkind when he initially ignored the lady? Was he mean or racist to speak about throwing crumbs to dogs? Did the woman really have faith or was she just clever in how she replied to the Lord? Part of the problem is that the text does not tell us background information on the woman. But it tells us enough that we can figure out something about her. Another problem is that we were not there nor did we live in the culture at the time, so we cannot definitively say what would be offensive or not in this kind of situation. The woman was a Gentile, but she had great faith. Thank the Lord that He receives Gentiles as well as Jews. Faith is the basis of that acceptance—not ethnicity or any other “human” characteristic!

The Bible is clear about the character and behavior of disciples. What are we to make of the fact that the word disciple does not appear in the epistles? Not much. The narrative form of the gospels and Acts lends itself to the use of that noun for Christians. The epistles are written to disciples and do not have to say the word for the target audience to be understood. Disciples look like the kind of people described in the gospels.

Paul commands the church to rejoice but beware of false teachers. Check yourself out against verse 3 again. Make sure you have the right focus, and your boasting is in the Lord and not in your own fleshly accomplishments. Make sure that you are in fact serving God. Are you wary of bad doctrine that would oppose the true gospel (v. 2)? And finally (v. 1), are you rejoicing in the Lord no matter what your circumstances might be?

The Lord allowed the nation of Israel to be carried into captivity by the Babylonians. However, God did not abandon His people. He provided instructions on how to live during their captivity: commanded His people to bear fruit and multiply, and be peaceable among the Babylonians. In fact, God tells His people they will remain in captivity for seventy years, until that day when He brings them back to their homeland, Jeremiah 29:11-14. When His people return to Jerusalem, God instructs His people to rebuild His temple, so that He can be glorified and that His people can worship Him in His house. His people would obey and rebuild the Lord's temple.

By the title of my message, “Clean Hands and a Clean Heart,” I do not intend to convey that the Pharisees were right about the ritual washing of hands but just fell short. They missed the entire boat. Rather: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4). And: “That the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Timothy 2:8). Ritual washing of hands is not the issue. Hands that do not practice sin is the issue. A heart first washed by the blood of Christ to break the power of sin and allow the hands to do righteousness instead of wickedness is what is needed. You must have a clean heart to have clean hands. The cleanliness of the hands is like in 1 Timothy 2:8 – a farmer with dirty hands out in his fields, but who is a good Christian man, can lift those soiled hands to God in prayer, and do so in complete fulfillment of this Scripture.

By the title of my message, “Clean Hands and a Clean Heart,” I do not intend to convey that the Pharisees were right about the ritual washing of hands but just fell short. They missed the entire boat. Rather: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4). Ritual washing of hands is not the issue. Hands that do not practice sin is the issue…and a heart first washed by the blood of Christ to break the power of sin and allow the hands to do righteousness instead of wickedness. The cleanliness of the hands is like in 1 Timothy 2:8 – a farmer with dirty hands out in his fields, but who is a good Christian man, can lift those soiled hands to God in prayer, and do so in complete fulfillment of this Scripture.

Interpreters often say that the book of Philippians is about joy, but another good theme to observe is service to others. Consider the teaching of 2:4-5 to all Christians. Consider the examples of Jesus Christ (2:5-8); Paul (2:17, 22); Timothy (2:19-23); Epaphroditus (2:25-30, 4:18); and the entire church (4:14-18). Do you think that God is trying to tell us something? The church works because of the service of its people. This service models the love of Christ toward us as we love one another. This service is not just for pastors or missionaries. It is for everyone.

We continue our study in the book of Haggai, led by James Widgeon. We address a question derived from the first eleven verses: Why build a temple? There are many different ways we might think about that question. Directly out of the text, notice in verses 7-8, God's own pleasure is for His people to build His temple, where He will be glorified in it. The other answer to this question is found in verses 9-11. Why? God has drawn His people to focus on Him, for His purpose, for His glory, for His sovereign plan.

By the title of my message, “Clean Hands and a Clean Heart,” I do not intend to convey that the Pharisees were right about the ritual washing of hands but just fell short. They missed the entire boat. Rather: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4). Ritual washing of hands is not the issue. Hands that do not practice sin is the issue... and a heart first washed by the blood of Christ to break the power of sin and allow the hands to do righteousness instead of wickedness. The cleanliness of the hands is like in 1 Timothy 2:8 – a farmer with dirty hands out in his fields, but who is a good Christian man, can lift those soiled hands to God in prayer, and do so in complete fulfillment of this Scripture.

Matthew 28:18-20 tells us that we are to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything the Lord has commanded. That is our central mission as a church.

But what exactly is our end product? What is a disciple? What does one look like? Act like? Think like? How are we supposed to make disciples if we are a bit fuzzy on what we are making? In today’s evangelical landscape, this sometimes gets lost in the rush to “get people to believe” or "make a profession of faith." Discipleship is reduced to "belief" and "belief" is reduced to head-knowledge, and true Christianity is emptied of reality.

We talk a lot about believers but not so much about disciples and this is not good. Discipleship roughly equals belief + transformation, and both are produced by God. Transformation refers to the "new person" thing that happens to someone when they trust in Christ. Their life changes—from characterized by sin to characterized by righteousness. The belief part of it refers to accepting that you are a sinner, that Christ is the Son of God who died for your sins and rose again, and that believing in Him you will have eternal life. But if you have fact-belief only without transformation, that falls short of true Christianity (even the demons believe, says James 2:19). That half-baked type of "Christianity" is called easy-believism or free grace theology.

On the other hand, if you claim to have a kind of transformation apart from belief in Christ then all you have is moral reformation, which rearranges a person's problems but does not ultimately solve the sin issue.

In this message, we embark on a study of what the Scripture says about disciples. These are the end products that we seek. We ought not to think that we perfectly become such a thing immediately after coming to Jesus. But we also ought not to think that our lives look entirely different than this end product. Even a new believer bears an unmistakable resemblance to what we will see in the many verses we will visit.

Perhaps you have some “I want to do ____” in your life. Can you convert each one to an “I trust God that I will be able to do ____”? First, is it something that you think fit with trust and God? Second, are you willing to let God carry out His plan about that, even if it does not match your plan? Third, if you are in a waiting-room type of situation, are you willing to joyfully wait, like Paul, “to see how it goes with me”? Fourth, if you are in an activity-required type of situation, are you energetically pursuing what God wants you to do while you wait for His disposition of the matter, pressing forward despite some difficulties that may arise? If you are a Christian, you are “in” the Lord—in Christ. This impacts everything you do and how you think. Your hopes, trusts, desires, actions, everything are influenced by this fact. What does “in Christ” mean? Think of the opposites—in Adam, in the world, in the flesh, in sin. Additionally, here are some applications to consider: A. I am deciding whether to go to church today. In making this decision, do I think about only myself, or do I think about all the other people at the church and how I might be a blessing to them? Do I focus on how they will be a potential detriment to me, or do I overcome that by faith in Christ and consider if I genuinely care for them in how I am making my decision? B. I am deciding how to spend the family’s finances. Do I think of others in the family, and outside of it, or just myself? C. I am going to partake in some entertainment. Am I thinking of others around me and their things, or just my own pleasure?

In this message we open God's word to the our new study in the book of Haggai, led by James Widgeon. This book is technically the second shortest book of the Bible. We ready the entire book which consisted of only two chapters. Our focus of this text is on the following main topic: God neglected - a temple project neglected.

Christ is able to take care of us here while taking care of our eternal life as well. Direct our prayer toward Christ to ask His help. But do so in faith, trusting that the Lord will help you as He sees fit. Return to passages like this to review so that you do not get too far off base. It is easy to stray away and look at our own things, our own circumstances, our own problems, our wind and waves, and forget Jesus is in charge and is using all of that to improve our character.

The Lord speaks to the prophet Samuel to stop mourning for Saul, but to go to the house of Jesse where He will reveal to Samuel who He had chosen to become king of Israel, a man after God's own heart. Samuel, fearing Saul would seek to kill him, responds to God asking for help. God provides a safe solution for Samuel in the means of bringing a heifer to Bethlehem as a sacrifice to God. So Samuel did what the Lord said, went to Bethlehem, and the elders of that town trembled at Samuel's coming. Samuel puts the concerns of the elders to rest by announcing he has come in peace to sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord's solution to Samuel's dilemma preserved not only the life of the prophet, but the town, the sons of Jesse, and the coming king of the Lord's own heart. This is the guiding principle that should inform our prayer life and its simply this: when we are faced with obstacles on the path of obedience, we must turn to our Lord in sincere heartfelt and specific prayer. We must turn our concern to Him! This demonstrates our total dependence on the Lord and ultimately gives Him the glory that He alone is due. We must turn our problems... into prayers...

Christ is able to take care of us here while taking care of our eternal life as well. Direct our prayer toward Christ to ask His help. But do so in faith, trusting that the Lord will help you as He sees fit. Return to passages like this to review so that you do not get too far off base. It is easy to stray away and look at our own things, our own circumstances, our own problems, our wind and waves, and forget Jesus is in charge and is using all of that to improve our character.

The so-called feeding of the 5,000 is recorded in all four of the gospels. We focus on Matthew’s account of it, but we examine all four accounts as we study this miracle that Christ performed. Today, where are the multitudes going out to find Jesus? Of course, no one finds Him in person today on this earth. But the analogous situation is this: people must come to true churches if they are to find Jesus. They will find there the message of Jesus, the people of Jesus, the provision of eternal life from Jesus, and the love of Jesus. Do not be frustrated when inconveniences come. Look at the “inconvenient” people who need compassion. Help them by sharing the Word of God, and, if needed, benevolence. It has been well said that the Lord permits us to be involved in His work by using what we have—as small as it might be. But it must be done in faith, without doubting (James 1:6). Remember that the fish and loaves were given by God too—as is everything else that we have. We use the resources that God gives us to do God’s work, even if those resources at first seem insufficient to do the job. The boy with the loaves and fish—and the disciples too—had to give them up so that the other people could be fed. We give and often get back…not in the prosperity gospel way, but in a way in which God’s grace ordains to supply so that His people have an abundance for every good work (2 Cor. 9:8). We should not be surprised at this historical account whatsoever, for the Creator of the universe (John 1:3) who used nothing but His divine power to make all things in six days can easily use something to create something more. Somehow He used the loaves and fishes as “seed-starters” because He “broke them,” meaning that he divided them into portions. Maybe He created the rest of the food out of pure nothing. One time He used dirt to create (new?) working eyes (John 9:6). The situation is a miracle, so trying to find a physics-based or natural-law explanation is futile. Do not waste the Lord’s provision, whether it was miraculous or not! (I am not suggesting that the Lord supplies via miraculous provision today.)

The apostle now is going to spell out some details about what it looks like to obey God’s word, which is the same thing as working out our salvation with fear and trembling. The next exhortations certainly fit the context of humility and like-mindedness, but they are even broader than that, encompassing all that we do in our lives. If the Christians keep holding on, keep believing, keep obeying, that is, persevering, this will give Paul a reason for rejoicing at the judgment of Christ because it will mean that his teaching and preaching work “remained” and did not disappear into thin air. John 15:16 says, “I chose you…that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” That is what the servant of God desires. It takes energy and toil to do this work. The salvation of souls is not the only goal! Paul wants to present every man perfect in Christ (Col. 1:28). God is working in you… to hold steadfastly to His sound teaching… so you shine as lights in the world… and one result of that is that you will not complain and argue.

We prepare our hearts in sharing the Lord's table, with a message focused on how Christians are to rejoice in our salvation, that God loves us enough to save us from the second death.

The apostle now is going to spell out some details about what it looks like to obey God’s word, which is the same thing as working out our salvation with fear and trembling. The next exhortations certainly fit the context of humility and like-mindedness, but they are even broader than that, encompassing all that we do in our lives. God is working in you… to hold steadfastly to His sound teaching… so you shine as lights in the world… and one result of that is that you will not complain and argue.

We welcome brother David Kurowicki and his wife Wendy this morning, who gave a testimony for us during the Sunday School hour. David has served with RBM ministries teaching Release time Bible classes as well as VBS for a number of years.

1. A recognition of God as transcendent, morally pure, and sovereign as the foundation of all petition.
2. A petition for the realization of the principal end of God’s providential plan: the Coming of the Kingdom.
3. A petition for incidental acts of providence flowing from God’s benevolent sovereignty.
4. A petition for interpersonal harmony as evidence that we are truly being fitted for the Kingdom.
5. A petition that God would regulate our temptations so that we do not fall, but rather grow in Christ and prepare for the coming Kingdom.

Recall from 2:9-11 that God exalted His Son after the humiliation portion of the incarnation. He did so by lifting Him up and assigning Him before all people the name which is above all names. The purpose of this exaltation was two-fold: that every knee should bow and that every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. All of this will result in glory to God the Father. But it should also result in our walking obediently to God now, for if we claim in words that He is our Lord and have bowed our knee to Him, we ought to live like it!

If you are saved, God has placed in you the desire to live a holy life, and He has given you the tools you need to actually accomplish it. No "woe is me" stuff here, "I cannot live for the Lord," "It is too hard," "It is too dangerous," etc. God works desire and enablement in you. Now, work them out, dear believer.

This is a story of incest and immorality in the highest levels of government, an eccentric religious preacher, and a murder plot to get revenge. Sounds like a movie, but it was a reality.

We covered some of this in our study of Matthew 11:1-19 when we looked at John the Baptist’s depression in prison. We look at it from a different angle in these notes.

Some applications from this message:

As much as I hate to have to say it, God permits rank injustices of the worst kind, even to His people. We must be ready for that possibility. Christians in Canada are having to face this. We have had to face a little bit of it with the pandemic restrictions on religious worship. DEI and other doctrines that are running rampant mean that we will face such things in the workplace and society generally. And, when any of us face it, we all face it.

Sometimes there is a price to be paid for preaching righteousness like John did. But that price is worth the honor that it brings to God to do so.

People are hard-hearted and hard-headed. They do not see the most obvious things, particularly when it comes to love or, as I like to remind people, lust. It is very easy to mix up those concepts and feelings overrun reason and morality so that decisions regarding marriage and intimacy and living together and divorce and adultery are all messed up. Some people know it is wrong and do it anyway; others have lost the connection with moral reality and think it is just normal and not a problem. When you confront them with that, they become quickly defensive because they love what they are doing. The gospel can penetrate such force-fields, but we ourselves cannot.

We need to think about our motivations. Herod had some very complicated machinations going on in his head in which he wanted to get rid of John, but he knew better than to do that, and he had pressure from outside. We too have justifications and reasons and thoughts and desires that affect how we behave. We must make sure these complex motivations are lined up with Scripture and we do not allow ourselves to submit to the weakest or basest of motivations.

Note that our church building was closed January 9 and 16, 2022 due to COVID. Ministries from January 16 may be found on our Youtube channel. No recordings were made on January 9.

Tonight we partook of the Lord's table with a message focused on the question, what was the Lord Jesus anticipating during the last supper? The Lord knew of all events which were soon to come, including His suffering. We study multiple passages in Scripture which gives us insight to better answer this question.

Paul's hope is not only that the church would be of like mind and working together for the gospel, but that also they would not be frightened or intimidated by their adversaries. Paul's command in verse 27 is to have our conduct be worthy of Christ's gospel. Part of worthy conduct to be unified, and part of it is not to fear adversaries. This should be our aim whether our spiritual overseers are looking on at the time or not.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed. We review the covenant God established with Abraham as well as his sons Jacob who would father the nation of Israel and Esau who would father the nation of Edom. God has spoken that destruction and ruin will come to Edom because of how they mistreated their brother, the nation of Israel during their captivity. Later in the text, we see God's promise to restore the nation of Israel, whereby God's people would rule over the nations that had previously oppressed them and the kingdom will be the Lord's.

The gospel as it is often preached today tells of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It tells of the meaning of those events—why they occurred and what they accomplished toward God and toward man. And this is extremely significant because wholeheartedly trusting in the Messiah is the only way of salvation from sin. It is the only way to become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. But this is just the beginning of the gospel of the kingdom! It is just the entryway or foyer into the kingdom of God that will be ruled by Christ in a future age, and then turned into the eternal heaven after that. The whole package is priceless, and thus worth everything to obtain.

The teaching of the virgin birth of Jesus is essential to the Christian faith in the following ways: 1) essential to the person of Christ 2) Essential to the work of Christ 3) essential to the integrity of God’s prophetic Word 4) Essential though it may not initially be understood 5) Essential because denying it indicates a lack of salvation. The Christian God can do a stupendous miracle like the virgin birth. Are there any other “gods” who can do the same? None! No other “god” has ever truly taken up residence in a man in such a way that He can be said to be the God-man. But Jesus Christ is that man! Additionally, we pick up our study on Jesus' parable of the Wheat and Tares. We conclude as did Jesus. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" If you have any spiritual hearing, turn up the hearing aid and pay attention! Listen to the words of Jesus in the Bible. Pay attention and figure out if you are a wheat or a tare.

Last week we pondered the doctrine of the incarnation— the in-flesh-ment of Jesus Christ in which He took to His divine person and nature a human nature as well. In so doing, He left the glorious place of open magnificence of His deity beside the Father. However, he did not merely come to join humanity as an exalted person. He came not as great king or priest, but rather as slave subjected to the most tortuous form of death then in use. If He did that, how much more should we be willing to lower ourselves in service to the Divine King? By saying this, the apostle Paul has exhorted the believers in Philippi to remove selfish ambition and conceit from their motives. Instead, they were to humbly treat others as better than themselves and to watch out for the interests of others and not just themselves. (2:3-4). This would propel them along toward the goal of being of one accord and one mind (2:2). We too need to work very diligently, by God's grace and through trust in Him, at putting aside selfish ambitions and pride and exercising true humility and concern for others. We turn to the next three verses. Unlike last week when the passage modeled a trait (humility) for us to cultivate in our character, we cannot be like Christ in this way. Instead, we are called to worship Jesus Christ so as to honor the Father. If you do not honor the Son, you do not honor the Father. A. If we are to do all things to the glory of God, this is one way in which we can do so—to humbly receive Christ as sovereign Lord, and confess Him as such. B. Christians echo that honor of God every time they speak and sing of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and every time they live accordingly. C. Finally, in following Jesus’s example of humility, we can expect that we will please God and receive an appropriate reward from Him. Remembering that those who humble themselves will be exalted will help us even when the humbling is beyond what we feel is fair or right.

The teaching of the virgin birth of Jesus is essential to the Christian faith in the following ways: 1) essential to the person of Christ 2) Essential to the work of Christ 3) essential to the integrity of God’s prophetic Word 4) Essential though it may not initially be understood 5) Essential because denying it indicates a lack of salvation. The Christian God can do a stupendous miracle like the virgin birth. Are there any other “gods” who can do the same? None! No other “god” has ever truly taken up residence in a man in such a way that He can be said to be the God-man. But Jesus Christ is that man!

In tonight's Christmas service, Pastor Matt leads our study where we see how Mary, knew that certain promises had to be fulfilled, because the angel told her of some of them, and she knew others from the Old Testament. She had to know that His death on the cross could not be the end. Here are the promises she must have pondered: Mary must have pondered: 1. He will save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), indicated even in His very name. 2. He is the Son of the Highest and will be great. He is the Son of God. 3. He will sit on the throne of His father David. 4. He will reign forever and His kingdom will never end. 5. She also knew that this one was connected to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, as indicated in her Magnificat.

We conclude as did Jesus. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" If you have any spiritual hearing, turn up the hearing aid and pay attention! Listen to the words of Jesus in the Bible. Pay attention and figure out if you are a wheat or a tare.

The people of Israel rejected their king, that is, Jesus Christ. The Lord turns His attention in another direction. The Disciples were mystified by how Jesus taught in Parables. Jesus' parables reveals truth about the kingdom and at the same time it hides that truth from unbelievers. Parables are revealed to believers as a blessing, while parables to unbelievers are a judgement against them. The truth content revealed in the parables has to do with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. There is a general principle given in v. 12 that we must take heed to: the person who has will be given more; and the person who does not have will lose even what he does have. The "thing" which is possessed is knowledge about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The implications of this statement are huge. If you believe and thus "have" a certain amount of God's revelation, that knowledge can increase. It will not stay static. And this is what you should want. Believe what God has given you and you will receive more. If you want more, do something with what you have already! If you ignore it, how do you expect God to "care" to give you more? If you do not believe and thus do not "have" much or any revelation, then even that information and its positive effects will degrade and become less and less. You might be an unbeliever with some biblical literacy but no application. But even that literacy will do you less and less good. Coming at this from another angle, recognize that depravity is not static. People get worse over time as they do not heed God's word. The principle of divine judgment, v. 13-15. Matthew records Jesus here speaking of the people of His generation using words found in Isaiah 6:9-10 about that generation. That was not a predictive prophecy, but Matthew loosely refers to it as a prophecy in that the idea is analogous or "translates" to the current situation. The principle of divine blessing, v. 16-17. If you can see and hear (understand) the things Jesus says, you are blessed. Never forget that. That blessing is not worked up from inside, but is given from outside. This blessing is remarkable because many holy men of old desired to see and hear what we see and hear, but could not because of their placement in the chronology of world history and divine revelation. You have the privilege to know revelation from God that Abraham did not, that Moses did not; that David did not; that Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel did not; that Daniel did not! Think of it…and then remember the responsibility that it brings. G. We have discussed reasons for the parables in general. Now I want you to notice Mark 4:13. It indicates that a basic grasp of the parable of the sower is the starting point for understanding the other parables used in our Lord’s teaching. So this “first” parable has a kind of "eye opening" function. It is a gateway, by understanding it, to all the other parables. This is because it is a very basic, entry-level lesson. It is not a secret key, but a foundation upon which to build. By understanding and applying this parable, you will demonstrate a basic grasp of the things of God that indicates regeneration.

This morning we were privileged in celebrating Jesus Christs birthday through worship, bible readings, and a bible message. Christmas is part one of a three-part series of events in which our Lord Jesus Christ was brought down to the lowest depths of reality. Part one is the incarnation, part two is the human life He lived for 33 years, and part three is His death and resurrection for sinners. In comparison to Jesus: A. We are not exalted. We never will be that exalted. B. We are not that humble. Until we are that humble, we have something to strive for. C. We have not humiliated ourselves like He did. Too often we think: 1. I need this or that. Look out for #1. But Jesus concerned Himself with the needs of others. 2. I’m too good for that. But He took the form of a slave. 3. I’m too important to serve others, much less give myself to them. But He did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. D. But what we have we ought to be willing to let go for others. Jesus is our standard to strive for. 1. What would it be like if we had a church full of people with “this mind” in them? What would it be like if we had thousands of churches like that? 2. What would you be like if you had “this mind” in you? 3. What would Christmas be like around the globe if everyone took to themselves “this mind”? E. Maybe you are in a lower socioeconomic class. Jesus understands where you are at. He went down to the lowest of low. Look at His parents financial position at His birth! Look at His torture and death. F. Maybe you are having problems in your family or workplace. Take on Christ’s attitude. No “holier than thou” or “better than thou” attitude is becoming of a Christian. Loving service is what ought to mark us— toward our husbands and wives and children and extended family and in our work place and in our church. G. Maybe you don’t have the “I will” syndrome of Isaiah 14. Perhaps it is the “I won’t” syndrome of rejecting the Word of God, of rejecting humble service to others. “I won’t do that for them!” That is a sinful attitude, not a “Christ-minded” attitude. Would you humble yourself to the lowest of lows because you love God and people?” Jesus Christ has given us an example. We are called to follow it.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed. We review the covenant God established with Abraham as well as his sons Jacob who would father the nation of Israel and Esau who would father the nation of Edom. God has spoken that destruction and ruin will come to Edom because of how they mistreated their brother, the nation of Israel during their captivity.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, where we see the Disciples asking Jesus why he spoke to the people in parables. Jesus answered them, "because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." Jesus spoke these words signifying that unbelievers would not understand His words because of the hardness of their hearts. Nevertheless, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah which says, "hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of these people have grown dull. Theirs ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." A believer can understand God's Word because their heart, mind, soul, and strength resides on drawing nearer to Him.

This parable is given in all three synoptic gospels—along with the explanation. It must be very significant for the Spirit of God to include it in full three times. The condition of the good soil is characterized by things we can discern in all four of the soils. Several ingredients must be in place. We discern that the good heart is marked by: (1) hearing the message of the kingdom and understanding it; (2) accepting the kingdom message with lasting joy; (3) enduring in adherence to the message; (4) being devoted single-mindedly to the message; (5) having a noble and good heart (Luke 8:15); (6) producing fruit of various amounts. Pastor Matt produced the above list by looking at the positive characteristics listed in Matthew 12:18-23, and then he turned each of the negative characteristics into its opposite. B. Corresponding to this, we see that a bad response to the message is marked by the various deficiencies in the three soils. Such deficiencies include some combination of the following, each the opposite of the above list: (1) hearing but not understanding; (2) not accepting; indifference or lack of gladness; (3) stumbling when difficulties arise; (4) being distracted by the things of life, money, pleasures; (5) having an evil heart (negation of Luke 8:15); (6) producing no fruit. Your local agriculture extension soil testing service is a helpful tool to test your garden's soil to see what ingredients it needs. Testing of a person's heart soil is more difficult. Send your heart’s soil off to Heaven for a soil test. Ask God, “Does my heart have these good or bad characteristics?” What kind of heart soil do you have?

Paul trusted he would be delivered to minister longer, but if not, that Jesus Christ would be honored in him anyway. Like Paul, we can have a sense that as long as God is not ready to call us heavenward, we ought to have this mindset: to live is Christ, to minister for fruit, and to help other people grow in grace and joy in their faith. But when time comes to die, we can look forward to a far better situation. And like the Philippian Christians, we can strive to make progress and growth in our faith and to continue in joy.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed. We review the covenant God established with Abraham as well as his sons Jacob who would father the nation of Israel and Esau who would father the nation of Edom. God has spoken that destruction and ruin will come to Edom because of how they mistreated their brother, the nation of Israel during their captivity.

The family of Christ is set out here in stark contrast to the enemies of our Lord who blasphemed His Spirit and were critical of His every move. They were as far away from “doing the will of God” as a person could be. Bottom line: Earthly, biological family is important. One’s relationship with God through Christ is even more important. Jesus’s family is much bigger than His biological family.

In this message Pastor Matt leads begins this evenings service with a Q and A session. The first question was asked: How involved was Judas when Christ was sending the Apostles our two by two? It's certainly possible that Christ gave Judas, just like the other Apostles miraculous powers. When God indwelt His Spirit in the Apostles, they were gifted with heavenly gifts. However, there is no question that Judas was an unbeliever. Judas was doing religious things but he was by no means a believer in Christ. The second question was asked, what was it like for Judas' partner, did he notice something was not right with Judas? We are not sure but we do know that Judas was a liar, a deceiver, a thief, and eventually a betrayer. We know that God can use unbelievers to fulfill prophecy. Judas is one example of this. Later, we open the Scripture in the twelfth book of Matthew, where Pastor Matt leads our continued study. We see the nation of Israel was taking itself into a worse spiritual condition than they were in before. The Pharisees were blinded by there own ignorance and jealously of Christ. Observe that we can have a very active study of the Scriptures within the confines of a very short passage. It is profitable to meditate carefully on the words of Jesus.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study in the first chapter of Philippians, where we see Paul assuring his dear friends that although he is in prison, the mission of the gospel is moving ahead anyway. In fact, the gospel is moving ahead not just despite his imprisonment, but because of it! God’s wisdom in using such situations to advance His work is amazing. COVID cannot stop the progress of the gospel, even if churches must close temporarily. Government regulations did not stop the church from worshipping last year, and they are not stopping us from worshipping this year. Interestingly, the modern-day attacks on the church can in fact be an occasion for us to become bolder and step 6 out in faith. We know what we have is precious and true. It is the only way a person can be eternally saved and secure. What do we have to be shy about? In our land, the modern version of opposition is little stuff. In other parts of the world, the harshest of persecution cannot eliminate the Christian faith. It can do real damage and deserves blame for many souls being lost because they do not hear the gospel, but if God wants the gospel anywhere, it will get there. Whether it is by a person, or by means of the computer, or radio, or print Bibles, the gospel will move. Pray that the Word will run to its destination (2 Thess. 3:1). Take serious stock of how you can be a conduit for the gospel. Don’t leave it to your pastor or hired-gun missionaries. You are a minister too (see Eph. 4:12, “work of ministry”)—even in hard times.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study in Hebrews 9:13-14, where we study the three different ways to try to approach God, not all equal. Notice three different methods of religion that are outlined in this passage: 1) Dead works 2) Animal sacrifice and 3) Christ’s self-sacrifice. We observe the effectiveness of each of these ways from verse 14, the death of Christ was intended not only to cleanse us from dead works, but to put us into service of the great King, the living God. May we be about serving Him in grateful remembrance of what He has done for us.

The point of the likeness between Jonah and Jesus is not death/resurrection, but the similar period of time in hidden in the belly of the fish/belly of the earth. So even if Jonah did not die and rise again, there is no reduction in significance of the similarity between the prophet’s fish sign and the resurrection sign of the Son of God. In the end, Jesus gave them a stupendous sign. But they still did not believe it, just like Luke 16:31 predicted.

We ended with this application point: Why ask God for something if you will still refuse to believe in Him?

Speech is a very good indicator one of one’s heart. You may not have opportunity to do as much bad as your heart would if it had such open doors. People probably speak more evil than they have done. That is because it is so easy to speak. The heart and mouth are only a few inches apart! So being judged by your speech is probably worse than you think. I believe this speech includes your thought-speech, not just that which you have uttered out loud. An old saying goes something like this: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words/names will never hurt me.” That statement has some value because it teaches us not to take what other people say too seriously. They do not know what they are talking about, or they are exceedingly mean in what they say and as such, there is little value in their words. Today, however, that statement has come under scrutiny because it is not true that words do not hurt. Words can start wars; words can do deep damage in a relationship. We can adapt the saying to highlight the meaning of this message: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but if you use evil words, they will hurt you.” Why? Because your words will be an evidence used in the courtroom of your future judgment. Indeed, “What you say can and will be used against you.”

This prayer is a great reminder of what God wants us to be like. In fact, He has begun a good work in us to be like this, and He is bringing it to completion, in part by Paul’s prayer, in part by our exposition of that prayer, and in part by our adherence to the values expressed in the prayer. He will also complete His work in your fellow Christians as you pray for them in this way. Not only thank God for their partnership in the gospel and express your love for them in prayer but pray that their love may not grow cold; that it may abound; that it may be discerning and not sappy or foolish. Pray they will live so that God can judge them as having done well.

In this message Pastor Matt explains why it is invalid for a critic to say that Christians pick and choose whatever they like from the book of Leviticus. There are very good reasons that Christians understand some principles to continue into the present age, while some ceased at some time in the past. We use three examples: the Bible's teaching on homosexual relations, keeping Sabbath, and the kosher food laws. There are explicit reinforcements of the first in the New Testament, and explicit teachings setting aside the other two. In addition, we learned that the critic has his own pick-and-choose problems.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study in the book of Acts, chapter 16, where we learn of the people of Philippi and the opening weeks of Christian ministry in that town.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study by first asking the question "What's the priority of the Church?" The priorities included 1) teaching the doctrine of the Gospel 2) Carrying out the Great Commission 3) fellowship with other believers 4) praying 5) baptism 6) and witnessing to others. These are where our focus should be as a church of God. Perhaps we have been focused on things other than these key foundational truths? We must recenter our focus and strive to be the church that God has called His people to be.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, focused in chapter 12. The Pharisees became enraged at Jesus because of His miracle. They could not “trap” him and it was obvious to the onlookers that Jesus was absolutely right. Instead of humbly taking defeat and changing their thinking, they went out and figured out how to destroy Jesus. That is a typical tyrannical approach at work. So what is the right understanding of the Sabbath? It was not a harsh condemnation of all activity on Saturdays design by God to be slavishly followed. It was a day of rest designed for man to refresh himself and spend time in worship. It was a day to do good as needs presented themselves. It was not a prohibition against all “doing” but a time to set aside normal labor.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study through the book of Matthew, chapter 11. The Jewish leaders thought themselves as wise and prudent whereas the followers of Jesus Christ were like children. Yet we see that God revealed Himself to those who believed in Him. We see Jesus' powerful affirmation that He is the sovereign God, where Christ claimed that the task of executing the divine will had been committed to Him. Jesus provides an open invitation to all who hear - but phrased in such a way that the only ones who will respond to the invitation are those who are burdened by their own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to save themselves by keeping the law.

In this message Dr. Mark Snoeberger leads our study in the book of Titus, chapter two. We see that sound doctrine is for older men, older women, younger women, young men, and bond servants reflects the duty of everyone in the church. We also see how God's sovereign purpose in calling out elders and in commanding His people to live righteously to provide the witness that brings God's plan and purpose of salvation to fulfillment.

We are thankful to welcome Dr. Mark Snoeberger today, along with his wife, Heather. Dr. Snoeberger is associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. In this message, we study the relationship between justification and sanctification.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study through the book of Matthew, chapter 11. The Jewish leaders thought themselves as wise and prudent whereas the followers of Jesus Christ were like children. Yet we see that God revealed Himself to those who believed in Him. We see Jesus' powerful affirmation that He is the sovereign God, where Christ claimed that the task of executing the divine will had been committed to Him. Jesus provides an open invitation to all who hear - but phrased in such a way that the only ones who will respond to the invitation are those who are burdened by their own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to save themselves by keeping the law.

What a blessing to welcome Tim and Cristina Goosen, along with Andres, to FBC today. They have served with GMSA in Argentina since 1996, and FBC has been a supporter since that time! Thank you for your ministry, Tim and Cristina! In addition to a report on the latest happenings in Argentina, Tim gave a message focused on how God desires a reverent, Spirit-filled life in view of the tremendous glory of God.

What a blessing to welcome Tim and Cristina Goosen, along with Andres, to FBC today. They have served with GMSA in Argentina since 1996, and FBC has been a supporter since that time! Thank you for your ministry, Tim and Cristina! In addition to a report on the latest happenings in Argentina, Tim gave a message focused on how God desires a reverent, Spirit-filled life in view of the tremendous glory of God.

John had his doubts, and needed confirmation for his weary and depressed soul. But entire cities full of people refused to receive Jesus's teaching. They wanted no change. The cities actually saw the works of Christ as well—the same ones John's messengers saw—and did not care about the implications of those works for their spiritual lives.

Herod had rendered his verdict on John: perhaps a prophet, but worthy of prison for declaring God's will about marriage. The crowds agreed that John was a prophet. Jesus explains that John is the greatest person ever born. He explains further that neither he nor John were accepted by Israel, despite their vastly different approaches to ministry. The leaders and people were simply implacable.

In this message, we learn about John the Baptist's imprisonment, and see the effect of it on his spirit. He was disillusioned with what was happening and wanted confirmation that indeed Jesus was the Christ. Jesus gave him that confirmation. We saw a similar episode of depression in Elijah's life in 1 Kings 19:1-18. From these portions of God's word, we glean a "prescription" for depression: (1) Treat the body with rest and nourishment as needed. (2) Continue to serve God. (3) Reflect on what God is doing in the world—in your world.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the first six verses in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, chapter ten, where we read about the dangers the twelve disciples were to face as well as the blessings God would give to each disciple for their work on proclaiming His gospel. The gospel work is a never ending task. Christians will face many enemies of God, but the enemies of the gospel will be sorry they did not listen to His message, and will face great judgement for not listening and for turning others away from Christ. The Lord reminds us to not fear man who can only kill the body, but fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Those who are more concerned with the things of their family than the things of God are not worthy of Him. The Lord makes it very clear that we are to follow Him and put Him before all things.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, focused on chapter 10, where we see whoever rejected the message of the apostles were considered pagan and to share the gospel with those who would here. The apostles were sent as sheep among wolves and were told by God to be as harmless as doves but wise as serpents. The apostles were to mirror Christ in their efforts in sharing His message. With Jesus fulfilling the old law, Christians today must solely trust in the Holy Spirit when they must defend their faith or during persecution. Those who fear God do not have to fear anyone else.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, focused on chapter 10, where we see the kingdom commission of the 12 disciples is not the same as the Great Commission. This will become clear as we carefully read the text. Even so, there are similarities in the missions and surrounding conditions from which we can learn much. Jesus gave his disciples spiritual power akin to what He himself exercised: 1. To cast out demons, 2. To heal all kinds of sickness and disease, and 3. To raise people from the dead. It is hard to imagine how this looked, and how it felt to the disciples. How could they suddenly have the authority to fix people’s illnesses, and call back spirits from the afterlife, and cast out demons? It became part of their spiritual existence. It did not change their physical constitution but it must have “felt” strange. II. Disciples Named, 10:2-4. There were twelve men selected by Jesus for special ministry. They are named elsewhere in Scripture as well.The target audience v. 5-6. They are told to go only to Israel. This is where it becomes clear that the kingdom commission of the 12 disciples is not the same as the Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20 and parallel passages. There, the disciples are told to go to all nations. Here, they are specifically commanded not to go to all nations! This is important for those who attempt to take from this passage a mandate to heal and cast out demons and so forth. That was for that time and those disciples in that place. It is not the “all nations” Great Commission that simply told the disciples to focus on making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey the Lord’s instructions. The message, v. 7. They were to preach, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom has come near to the nation in the person of their Messiah King, and they must respond with…what? This summary statement does not say, but we know exactly what it is from earlier in Matthew’s gospel. The called-for response is exactly what the Lord and John the Baptist before Him said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). This was at once a joyful message, because God was offering to establish His kingdom on earth; and it was a convicting message, because the subjects of the kingdom had to deal with their sin which separated them from their King. The authentication, v. 8a. To back up their message, they were commanded to heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. They were to use the power that Jesus gave to them to the full. The message with the main course. The miracles were the proof that the meal was real. The free ministry, v. 8b. They were told to give it everything they could They had received freely, and they were now to distribute it freely. They would take the Lord’s delegated authority and multiply its benefits throughout the nation of Israel. They were not to charge for their “services.” You can imagine someone who could heal others might charge exorbitant fees if they were greedy.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the first six verses in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, focused on chapter 10, where we see the kingdom commission of the 12 disciples is not the same as the Great Commission. This will become clear as we carefully read the text. Even so, there are similarities in the missions and surrounding conditions from which we can learn much. Jesus gave his disciples spiritual power akin to what He himself exercised: 1. To cast out demons, 2. To heal all kinds of sickness and disease, and 3. To raise people from the dead. It is hard to imagine how this looked, and how it felt to the disciples. How could they suddenly have the authority to fix people’s illnesses, and call back spirits from the afterlife, and cast out demons? It became part of their spiritual existence. It did not change their physical constitution but it must have “felt” strange. II. Disciples Named, 10:2-4. There were twelve men selected by Jesus for special ministry. They are named elsewhere in Scripture as well.The target audience v. 5-6. They are told to go only to Israel. This is where it becomes clear that the kingdom commission of the 12 disciples is not the same as the Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20 and parallel passages. There, the disciples are told to go to all nations. Here, they are specifically commanded not to go to all nations! This is important for those who attempt to take from this passage a mandate to heal and cast out demons and so forth. That was for that time and those disciples in that place. It is not the “all nations” Great Commission that simply told the disciples to focus on making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey the Lord’s instructions. The message, v. 7. They were to preach, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom has come near to the nation in the person of their Messiah King, and they must respond with…what? This summary statement does not say, but we know exactly what it is from earlier in Matthew’s gospel. The called-for response is exactly what the Lord and John the Baptist before Him said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). This was at once a joyful message, because God was offering to establish His kingdom on earth; and it was a convicting message, because the subjects of the kingdom had to deal with their sin which separated them from their King. The authentication, v. 8a. To back up their message, they were commanded to heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. They were to use the power that Jesus gave to them to the full. The message with the main course. The miracles were the proof that the meal was real. The free ministry, v. 8b. They were told to give it everything they could They had received freely, and they were now to distribute it freely. They would take the Lord’s delegated authority and multiply its benefits throughout the nation of Israel. They were not to charge for their “services.” You can imagine someone who could heal others might charge exorbitant fees if they were greedy.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew. The pharisees questioned Jesus why His disciples did not fast. Jesus replied that there is a time for fasting and a time for celebration. While the Lord was with the disciples, he told them that it was not the time to fast but to celebrate. When the Lord ascended to heaven this provided means for the disciples to fast, in private. We see Jesus' miracle of raising a girl from the dead and healing a woman of her severe hemorrhage. The ruler of the daughter who died as well as the woman with the severe hemorrhage had faith that Jesus Christ could heal both. Jesus replied to both people that their faith was strong as recorded in the book of Matthew.

Put to death the sins of the flesh (Col. 3:5). Deal with transgressions very sternly (Matt. 5:29- 30). Think of on this and let me know what you come up with! For non-Christians, there is only one remedy, and that is to call on the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek His pardon; turn from your sin—all of it— and turn to Jesus. This is what the Book means when it says, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Decide to follow Him instead of your own wicked cravings. He receives sinners such as you and will forgive and cleanse you and put you on the path of victory in the battle against sin. You will then be engaged in the fight. Until then, you have no effective resource in your battle.

In this message speaker James Widgeon leads our study in the first four verses in the book of Obadiah. The Lord speaks through the prophet that judgement has come to Edom and her ruin has been brought through the nations sins and would be utterly destroyed.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew. The pharisees questioned Jesus why His disciples did not fast. Jesus replied that there is a time for fasting and a time for celebration. While the Lord was with the disciples, he told them that it was not the time to fast but to celebrate. When the Lord ascended to heaven this provided means for the disciples to fast, in private. We see Jesus' miracle of raising a girl from the dead and healing a woman of her severe hemorrhage. The ruler of the daughter who died as well as the woman with the severe hemorrhage had faith that Jesus Christ could heal both. Jesus replied to both people that their faith was strong as recorded in the book of Matthew.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew. Jesus Christ heals a paralytic who was lowered down through a roof into the room where He was. Jesus saw the faith in the hearts of the four men who helped the paralytic down through the roof. Jesus saw the sin in the heart of the paralytic and forgave him. Jesus also saw the unbelief in the hearts of the scribes. The multitude of peoples marveled and glorified God, but they missed the significance of the miracle. Jesus did it not to demonstrate that God has given such power to men, but to demonstrate that God's presence was among them in Him. Additionally, Jesus passed a man named Matthew, a tax collector for the Roman government, and told him to follow Him. The Jews deemed Matthew a traitor because of his occupation and service to the Romans. Jesus called Matthew to be one of His disciples demonstrates that Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Jesus then sits with many tax collectors and sinners and is questioned by the Pharisees why He is eating with such sinful men. Jesus responds with mercy and love by stating "For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study where we see that God’s grace enables us to live for Him, we are no longer ruled by sin. This leads Paul to write the well-known verse found in Romans 6:23. We do not continue in sin that grace may abound, because grace abounds by removing us from the realm of sin and death. Grace puts us in an entirely new sphere of existence so we can serve God. You may feel sometimes that sin abounds. Grace abounds much more. Ponder Romans 5:20-21 in this connection.

We’ve thought about the future in this message. But we are not there yet. We are in the present, and in the present, we are told to continue observing the Lord’s Table to proclaim the Lord’s death for us. We do that with bread and grape juice as tangible reminders of the tremendous work He did on our behalf.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, where we study how Jesus saw the people as being sheep without a Shepherd. The religious leaders of Israel were not leading the people as God had commanded. Instead, the religious leaders were trying to lead them away from the one true Shepherd.

When Pastor Matt reads passages like this, he sometimes reflects on the truth that with this kind of power, the Lord can help us in any circumstances in which we find ourselves. In fact, He may help us IN the circumstances, or OUT of them. The former may be in fact harder than the latter! But He can do that. For instance, 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that God will now permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able to endure, and will provide a way of escape. He is sympathetic to us, having been tempted Himself (Heb. 2:18, 4:15). Jesus has the kind of power need to help you and He is ready to use it in your behalf. He arose from the dead. He will raise up all the dead. He is at the right hand of God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He is the sovereign potentate of the Universe, and He rules over everything. Why do we not believe in Him in the stormy seas that we experience? Often our troubles are very gentle waves and small difficulties, and we still do not have peace! Are we also of little faith?

Psalm 32 explains the results of confession and cleansing that are experienced by a sinner who repents—the first time or the thousandth. God’s mercy and grace continue ever. Romans 6 asks the question that will come to some minds: if God’s grace is so rich, why not sin more so that grace can do even more of its wonderful work? That seems reasonable, no, if we can do more of what we want to do and God can do more of what He does? The short answer is this: no, because that is ridiculous. The longer answer is this: because God’s grace is so rich that it can train you to not sin in the first place. It can make you pure, and make you to see the abundant riches of a holy life--and that is what God’s intention with it is! And that brings us full circle back to Titus which taught us that the grace of God that brings salvation has taught us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this evil age.

In this mornings message Pastor Matt leads our study in the book of Luke, focused on the terminology on the cost of discipleship and salvation. Salvation if free to obtain through Christ. However, the cost of discipleship is a life-long pursuit to living a Christ-like life and demands our full commitment to Him. Additionally, we study the Doctrine of Substitution which states that Christ died on the cross so that we would not have to die the second death. Christ as God became the suitable substitute who paid the infinite payment of mankind's sin.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt leads a question and answer session.

Psalm 32 explains the results of confession and cleansing that are experienced by a sinner. Meditate on this Psalm sometime soon as part of your spiritual improvement (continuing education). May what we have learned from Jeremiah and the Psalms challenge us to forsake sin and be grateful that we have such a merciful and forgiving God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this message James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Obadiah. We focus on the root word of 'Obed' as mentioned in the book of Ruth. As we preparing our study in the book of Obadiah, we concluded that this name means "one who serves". We are then given an overview of the book of Obadiah and the different topics we will be covering in future messages.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt continues our study in the book of Matthew where we spend our entirely of time in the eighth chapter. A scribe publicly declared that he would follow Jesus. Jesus responds that the scribe should drop everything he is doing and immediately follow Him. The scribe tells Jesus that he has a few things to do before he will follow Christ, perhaps wait for an inheritance. Christ makes it clear by responding "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Jesus makes it clear that if you are to follow Him you must be immediately ready and knowing the cost of suffering and inconvenience. A true believer both believes and follows Christ. A person who believes but does not follow, does not truly believe in Him.

In this message Pastor Matt continues our study in the book of Matthew, where we see a centurion asking Jesus to heal his servant. The Roman leader cared for his servant and asked Jesus to speak a word and his servant would be healed. Christ marveled at the man's faith as he acknowledged that Jesus had all power and authority, even to heal. Christ heals the servant that very hour. Additionally, we see Christ explaining that even Gentiles who accept Christ would be part of the kingdom of heaven and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, those who did not follow Christ would be cast into outer darkness with great weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The apostle closes his letter with a short passing of greetings—from his co-workers to Titus and a request for Titus to pass Paul’s greetings to those who know and love him in the Christian faith. Evidently the letter, although to Titus, is expected to be shared with some coworkers. It appears from this that Titus was likely the leader of a small missionary team. Finally, Paul wishes divine grace upon all who are present with Titus, including the named recipient of the letter. Oh, how we need that which we do not deserve. Thank God for His grace.

In this message James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Obadiah, with supporting Scripture from Genesis, Numbers, and Acts on the two sons of Issac, Jacob and Esau. Jacob would receive the birth-rite blessing of Issac, His Father, even though Esau was born first. Jacob's descendants would form the later Israelite's and Esau's descendants would form the Edomites. These two nations would forever be at enmity with the other.

In this evenings message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Matthew, where he provides a summary of the first seven chapters in the book of Matthew before beginning chapter 8. Tonight's message focused on the text of Jesus cleansing the leper. Jesus Christ has the ability and power to heal the leper. The man had faith to be healed and was indeed healed by Jesus. Jesus told the leper to be quiet and go to his own house. However, the leper instead announced to the city of what Jesus had done. This resulted in Jesus' difficulties in ministry in suburb areas due to the overwhelmingly large crowds. After this Jesus' following continued to grow. However, the crowds were more focused on obtaining welfare rather than being spiritually fed with the Word of God.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt leads our Lord's Table explaining what exactly the Lord's Table is and it's significance. The Lord's Table is a memorial ordinance that the Lord has given to us where He established the New Covenant through His blood on the cross, marking the beginning of the new age.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our continued study in the book of Titus, focused on how Christians ought not to engage in foolish dissensions but rather maintain good works and meeting the needs of others.

For Sunday school, Pastor Matt continues our study on the theology of the cross and gospel focused on atonement and how it can be studied and applied in our daily lives as Christians. A sinful person can be reconciled to Jesus Christ's through His atoning sacrifice.

Jesus taught things directly. He did not mince words, use evasive language, or speak uncertainly or in generalities. He spoke clearly and specifically. He cut to the heart of the matter, not beating around the bush, or stopping short of what is truly needed. Consequently, the people were amazed. “Just who is this guy?!” He demanded people follow HIS words, not the Pharisee’s words. The audience was not left in the dark. They were unable to “spin” His words in a self-favoring, “do-nothing” sense. They were forced to deal with this. It was clear, unlike the teaching of the Pharisees and Scribes before Jesus came onto the scene. Their teaching was likely of the sort that we see today: easybelievism, so-and-so says this or book such-and-such says that, or “hath God said?” which attacks the Word of God by questioning it and creating doubt. There are still people out there who, though inoculated against such authoritative teaching, can still experience a breakthrough case of the gospel and be saved. Millions of souls need direct, soul-saving teaching of God’s word. They are not getting it in the world with all its mish-mash. Fluff teaching kills, my friends, because it lets people live in their own little world and foggy brain. Soon it will be too late. Direct teaching wakes up a soul and could well save it. This we know for sure—if someone does not respond to Christ, 11 they will definitely not be saved. And if they are not presented clearly with the truth, how can they respond? Christian faith is life transforming. It is live saving. It is life-preserving. It is the only safe option in the coming deluge of judgment and the storms of life. You must be settled on the Rock of your salvation, Jesus Christ, else you will be crushed by the fall of your house onto your head. There are only two ways to go: narrow gate or broad gate, difficult way or easy way, good fruit or bad fruit, true relationship or pretend, solid foundation or sandy foundation, obedience to God’s word or disobedience. You must make a choice. You must make a choice. Choose life. Choose today whom you will serve.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff leads our study where we see the gracious work of God whereby Christians are redeemed and cleansed and renewed. This is how we escape a foolish, disobedient life, and are transformed by God into good citizens and upright people while we await the second coming of Jesus and His kingdom.

There is no evening message recorded for today, since we shared a Singspiration with Hiawatha Bible Church.

For Sunday school, Pastor Matt continues our study on the theology of the cross and gospel and how it can be studied and applied in our daily lives as Christians. It specifies how our savior Jesus Christ's sacrifice was sufficient to save sinners from the 2nd death and how His people can have a relationship with Him.

In tonight's service pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the book of Ezra, where we see the nation of Israel laying the temples foundation.

In tonight's message Pastoral intern Jansen Lorch provides a Ministry Report on how God called him into His ministry, sharing both his personal testimony as well as Kaylee's, and the plans they have to serve Christ in the coming years.

In this message Pastor Matt leads our study in the book of Titus reminding us that Christians are to live godly lives because we were ungodly before but are not now. In this message we study the head-to-head contrast of the traits of a non-believer versus characteristics of a redeemed person. Consider 1 Peter 4:1-3: we have spent enough of our life in sin. Time to move on for Christ.

For Sunday school, Pastor Matt continues our study on the theology of the cross and gospel and how it can be studied and applied in our daily lives as Christians. It specifies how our savior Jesus Christ's sacrifice was sufficient to save sinners from the 2nd death and how His people can have a relationship with Him.

In tonight's message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the book of Ezra. We learn of Israel's worship to God was restored and the alter was rebuilt. Additionally, Israel's regular calendar had resumed.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt hosts a Bible Q and A, focused on the following questions: 1) God's forgiveness and His example on how Christians should forgive one another. 2) Someone was reflecting on the Vietnam era, focused on the treatment of returned veterans and how they were shamed. This person questioned their ability to be saved by Christ. 3) Why God created the Sabbath for man and it's purpose. 4) The Gospel presentation method, which not only presents present information about Christ but we want to engage the conscious of the person we are witnessing too.

We have learned about Jesus’s gracious appearing and second appearing. About His saving appearing and glorious appearing. We have studied His saving grace, teaching grace, and sacrificing grace. Let us also have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptable with reverence and godly fear.

In this message James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Obadiah, with supporting Scripture from Genesis, Numbers, and Acts on the two sons of Issac, Jacob and Esau. Jacob would receive the birth-rite blessing of Issac, His Father, even though Esau was born first. Jacob's descendants would form the later Israelite's and Esau's descendants would form the Edomite's. These two nations would forever be at enmity with the other.

Jesus taught things straight up. He did not mince words, use evasive language, or speak uncertainly or in generalities. He spoke clearly, specifically, directly. He cut to the heart of the matter, not beating around the bush or stopping short of what is truly needed. Consequently, the people were amazed. They were not left in the dark or able to “interpret” His words in a self-favoring, “donothing” sense. They understood, and it was clear, unlike the teaching of the Pharisees and Scribes before Jesus came onto the scene. I suspect that there are still people out there who, though inoculated against such authoritative teaching, can still experience a breakthrough case of the gospel and be saved. Millions of souls need direct, soul-saving teaching of God’s word. They are not getting it out there in the world with all the mish-mash of stuff out there. Christian faith is life transforming. It is live saving. It is life-preserving. It is the only safe option in the storms of life and the coming deluge of judgment. You must be settled on the Rock of your salvation, Jesus Christ, else you will be crushed by the fall of your house onto your head.

Jesus taught things straight up. He did not mince words, use evasive language, or speak uncertainly or in generalities. He spoke clearly, specifically, directly. He cut to the heart of the matter, not beating around the bush or stopping short of what is truly needed. Consequently, the people were amazed. They were not left in the dark or able to “interpret” His words in a self-favoring, “donothing” sense. They understood, and it was clear, unlike the teaching of the Pharisees and Scribes before Jesus came onto the scene. I suspect that there are still people out there who, though inoculated against such authoritative teaching, can still experience a breakthrough case of the gospel and be saved. Millions of souls need direct, soul-saving teaching of God’s word. They are not getting it out there in the world with all the mish-mash of stuff out there. Christian faith is life transforming. It is live saving. It is life-preserving. It is the only safe option in the storms of life and the coming deluge of judgment. You must be settled on the Rock of your salvation, Jesus Christ, else you will be crushed by the fall of your house onto your head.

We learned about saving grace in the prior message. In this one, we learn about teaching grace, which we could also call sanctifying grace. In verse 14, we will see sacrificing grace. God has explained through Paul the basis for living and doing church the way that was commanded in chapters 1 and 2. That basis is the grace of God that brings salvation and sanctification, and teaches us to look forward to the coming of Christ. This is sufficient motivation for us to live the Christian life. The two things—salvation and sanctification—are inseparable. You cannot profess to know God and then in works deny Him. That is not Christianity. You must profess God and your grace-driven works must demonstrate the reality of your profession. Good works do not cancel grace or obtain grace; they are the fruit of grace! Grace trains and enables this kind of life.

In this message James Widgeon leads our new study in the book of Obadiah, with supporting Scripture from Genesis, Numbers, and Acts on the two sons of Issac, Jacob and Esau. Jacob would receive the birth-rite blessing of Issac, His Father, even though Esau was born first. Jacob's descendants would form the later Israelite's and Esau's descendants would form the Edomite's. These two nations would forever be at enmity with the other.

In this message Pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the second book of Ezra. We study the list of people who were the descendants taken captive by king Nebuchadnezzar and who later returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Some of these men would help rebuild the Lord's temple. Additionally, when the Jews returned to Jerusalem, their first act was to rebuild the altar where it was before. Their first priority was worship.

In tonight's message we are blessed to welcome guest speaker Jack McMahan who provides an update on what the Lord is doing in New Zealand followed by a Q and A session. Please continue to pray for the McMahan's that the Lord would provide opportunities for them to share Him with others.

In this message we are again welcomed by speaker Jack McMahan who leads our study on God the Father having exalted Jesus: He is Preeminent: 1) in relation to the Father - exact image, 2) in relation to creation - creator and sustainer, and 3) in relation to the church - the head. His work of reconciliation is Preeminent, is He preeminent in your life?

In this message we have the privilege and blessing of welcoming Jack and Beverly McMahan, who leads our message today focused on five key concepts of sharing the Lord's table.

In this message Pastor Matt teaches us the importance of not just saying, but doing. Not just thinking, pondering, commenting, or connecting it to other texts. Rather, the Lord wants us to observe/keep/obey/follow/put into practice this principle. We do not obey because we are sinners. We do not obey to our own hurt. Others do not follow this because they too are sinners. We do not do to others as we would have them do to us because we think on our own things, about ourselves, and we do not stop to think about others. Further, we do not put God first. We have to love God with all our hearts, and then we can love our neighbors properly. If we put self first, God and others come last. We have to put God first, and then others will come along in the right order, and then self last. I wonder… do you think we should treat God as we like him to treat us?

The Christian can confidently ask God for whatever is needful. Not only is this an opportunity available, but Jesus commands it. Ask! The believer can rely upon God’s goodness to give what is best in response to that request. Even if you do not know how to ask, or what to ask for, you can be confident that God is good and He will respond in the best possible way to your request.

What we will see in the rest of this section is that God’s grace did not only appear to bring an initial salvation or rescue from sin. It also enables and teaches us how to live properly. And this is critical for the people of Crete and the people of Ann Arbor because there are many who profess to know God, but in works they deny Him. Both the saving and sanctifying operations of Christ’s grace are to be active in the life of a true believer.

In this message we are welcomed with a prerecorded missionary update from Mariano Proto. Additionally, Pastor Matt shares his study on the theology of the cross and gospel and how it can be studied and applied in our daily lives as Christians. It specifies how our savior Jesus Christ's sacrifice was sufficient to save sinners from the 2nd death and how His people can have a relationship with Him.

In this message Pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the second book of Ezra. We study the list of people who were the descendants taken captive by king Nebuchadnezzar and who later returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Some of these men would help rebuild the Lord's temple.

Verses 1-4 teach us to avoid super-critical judgment. But in doing that, we cannot forget that we must proclaim the truth. We cannot be “so unjudgmental” that we have zero discernment about people or situations or that we do not say anything critical. But we must discern when it is time to move on to greener pastures so that we do not bring God’s name down into a muddy wrestling match. That is not suitable for holy things.

The results of the Christian lifestyle in every age and social group are found in verses 5, 8, and 10: “That the word of God may not be blasphemed.” “That one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.” “That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” We discern two directions in the purpose of Paul’s teaching. The first is toward God. It is not just the reputation of the church or the shame of an individual that is at issue: God’s honor and glory are even more important. If we behave badly, the world easily notices and this drags God’s word and name into the mud. That ought to be a deep concern to us. Compare this to Romans 2:23-24. If we live well, God’s teaching is “dressed up nicely” with our conduct and it makes God and His doctrine all that much more appealing to an outsider. The second direction in which a truly Christian lifestyle makes an impact is toward people. If we behave well consistently and in a loving fashion (not a haughty fashion) then we will have an impact on others around us. They may persist in denying Christ or saying that they do not believe like we do, but they cannot deny that our lives are well-lived and there is nothing evil to say. However, when a church has an incident of abuse or a split or does strange things in the community, that gives the people an excuse to reject not only the church, but God as well. The church family’s ethics must be superb. The church must stand out in a society that is unethical. But Paul’s concern is not just that the church be different so it is non-conformist. His instructions are not an expediency to keep the church alive in the Roman culture. His concern is the truth of God, the doctrine which is in agreement with godliness (Titus 1:1). It is applicable in every culture throughout all time. Truth supersedes culture and whether following truth means the church is well-thought-of or ill-thought-of does not matter ultimately. What matters is that God is honored by faithful obedience to His word. When you examine your own life in light of the instructions for men or women and servants, how do you stack up? Is your life honoring your Savior and Lord, or is it dragging His name down?

According to the definition of woke by its advocates—being aware of racial injustice and actively combating it—our church is not woke. Christian theology in general is not woke. Church work properly focuses on the gospel, which is the true and only solution to sin of all sorts, and that certainly includes the sin of racism. There is another real sense, however, in which individual Christians and churches do take a stand against some of injustices of the sort that woke advocates are concerned about. We believe in just treatment of all people regardless of color, culture, economic position, etc. This is because the Bible shows us that God Himself desires these kinds of things. There are other so-called injustices that we do not go along with (gender identity change, for instance, or sexual immorality). Even in those cases, however, the Bible does not advocate for mean or unloving treatment. Part of love is encouraging reform of thinking and behavior. Exodus 23:6 says, “You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute.” In other words, you cannot treat a poor person worse because he is poor. But you also cannot treat a poor person better because he is poor. Leviticus 19:15 says, “You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.” You cannot discriminate for or against. You cannot even do that when you are trying to “undo” past wrongs. Truly focus on undoing those wrongs by making things right in the present. Do not redo the wrongs of the past!

In tonight's message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our new study in the book of Ezra. We begin studying Israel's departure from Babylonian captivity and return to Jerusalem. King Cyrus' degree allowed the Jews to rebuild the temple (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) where we see the fulfilled prophecy proclaimed from the mouth of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:10). God also stirs up Israel's leaders to rebuild the temple and reinstate the precious articles of gold and silver, in which God preserved from destruction, during Israel's captivity and whereby were used in the house of the Lord.

Spend more time judging yourself than others. Consider your own ways before volunteering yourself to correct another (Gal. 6:1). Remember that your own internal sins are just as visible to God as the external ones you see in others. Your pride, lack of forgiveness, hate, lust, lack of mercy, impatience, self-righteousness, etc. are all on wide-open display toward God. And God hates those things (Prov. 6:16-19).

In this message we are welcomed by missionary speaker Dan Thompson who leads our study, focused on Christ's compassion for the lost. We are reminded of the urgency all believers must have to share His gospel with the world. As Jesus said, "The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few." We should be moved to compassion through Jesus' example through both prayer and action, to share His good news.

Today we have the joy to welcome Dan, along with his wife Liz and three of their children. Dan and Liz have served with GMSA in Chile, and anticipate future ministry in Uruguay as soon as COVID restrictions ease there.

The kind of judgment you use will eventually reflect back onto yourself. God sees to it in His divine justice when He judges the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1) that He will take into account how we have judged others. God will judge His people (Heb. 10:30). Revelation 20:12-13 says that God will judge each one according to his works.

In this message we are welcomed with missionary speaker Nathan Schrock who leads our study prior to sharing the Lord's table. In this message, we study the gospel of Christ is a treasure (in earth and vessels) to a believer, as expressed by the apostle Paul. We are separated from God because of His holiness and due to the sinfulness of mankind we are cut off from him. There is a separation (spiritual death) and because of it we cannot be in communion with God. But Jesus Christ through His mercy and love reconciled us to Him.

In this message we welcome missionary speaker Nathan Schrock. He turned our attention to the holiness, majesty, and wisdom of God as declared by the apostle Paul.

In this message we had the blessing of welcoming missionaries Nathan and Hannah Schrock, who are serving on deputation with Baptist World Mission. We enjoyed hearing more about their heart to serve the Lord in the Ivory Coast.

In tonight's message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our new study in the book of Ezra. We begin studying the background and setting of this book where we see Israel exiting the Babylonian captivity.

Note that the Lord is dealing with internal matters of religion—how we do benevolence and why we do it; He speaks of why we pray and fast, not for men, but for God. The “how” of these religious acts is driven by the why to be God-centered instead of mancentered. We are challenged to point our hearts heavenward (19- 21), to be transformed/illuminated from the inside (22-23), and to serve God instead of worldly wealth (24). Finally in chapter 6, Jesus deals with worry, which is another internal matter that reveals a lot of what we are truly “made of.”

Paul instructs Titus as to how he is to teach sound doctrine. You might imagine that this describes the ministry Titus is to have directly to the churches in Crete, as if he is planning to visit each one and do some preaching and teaching. That is not out of the realm of possibility, but there is another option. Paul could well be telling Titus how to train the elders he was appointing in the churches. He was to teach them so that they in turn could pass this sound doctrine to their churches. This would multiply Titus’s efforts so that he could reach more churches. In this scenario, he would be following the same pattern as Paul taught Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2.

There is hardly a need at the present time to justify a Christian thinking through the CRT / wokeness mess that is currently all the rage. We have to analyze it from a Biblical standpoint, and recognize the danger of this pre-planned assault not only on Christian values, but on the principles that have underpinned our Republic for hundreds of years. I knew it was past time to address the issue when I got these questions through our website: 1) Is Fellowship Bible Church (FBC) affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation (modern day apostles/prophets, 7 mountain mandate)? ? The Seven Mountain Mandate is a post-millennial, Pentecostal/charismatic dominion theology where the church is supposed to take over the pillars of society and then once the kingdom is established on earth, then Christ will return. 2) Is FBC a "woke" church? Do you espouse Critical Race Theory? Absolutely not. FBC is not woke, and we reject CRT. We are going to look at why we do that in these notes.

In this message we are privileged to hear guest missionaries Dan and Becca Vallette's update on Camp Pirque near Santiago, Chile. The camp is within one hour driving distance of a population of 8 million souls, and it has almost unlimited potential to help the nearby churches.

In tonight's message we continue our study in the book of Ruth, where we focus on the purpose of a family record used to establish incontestable succession by way of the more notable ancestors.

In this message guest speaker Pastor John O'Dell leads our study on the Apostle Paul preaching to pagan people in Athens and hits some of the basic fundamental truths of our Christian faith. As we welcome fathers day, we focus on the absolute necessity for fathers to instill these truths into our children. With the evil in this world, it is critical that fathers take this role with all seriousness and urgency. Christians must be well versed in the bible. We also study on how Paul evangelized to the people of Athens, where Paul started from creation, the general revelation of God. When evangelizing Jews, he started from the OT. Additionally, we study in verse twenty-six that all men are equal in God's sight since all came from one man, Adam.

In this message guest speaker Pastor John O'Dell reminds believers that we must have an urgency to share the gospel with nonbelievers. We reflect on America being founded with Christian roots as noted in the Declaration of Independence. However, in these more recent years in Americas history we see an ungodly spiritual battle with man forsaking God and turning to their own lusts and desires. We are told by Christ to be watchmen and to be prepared for His return. Until the rapture takes place God commands believers be prepared and rather not ashamed of His return. The tribulation appears to be rapidly approaching, so Christians ought to be motivated with urgency, to witness to others the need of His salvation, repentance of ours sins, and trust and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In tonight's message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the book of Ruth. It was God's plan that Boaz redeemed Naomi's land and Ruth's marital union. Naomi, once empty, is renewed with a fullness; Ruth, once a widow, is married, most importantly, the Lord has prepared Christ's line of descent in David, through Boaz and Obed, back to Judah to fulfill the proper messianic lineage.

There is hardly a need at the present time to justify a Christian thinking through the CRT / wokeness mess that is currently all the rage. We have to analyze it from a Biblical standpoint, and recognize the danger of this pre-planned assault not only on Christian values, but on the principles that have underpinned our Republic for hundreds of years. I knew it was past time to address the issue when I got these questions through our website: 1) Is Fellowship Bible Church (FBC) affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation (modern day apostles/prophets, 7 mountain mandate)? ? The Seven Mountain Mandate is a post-millennial, Pentecostal/charismatic dominion theology where the church is supposed to take over the pillars of society and then once the kingdom is established on earth, then Christ will return. 2) Is FBC a "woke" church? Do you espouse Critical Race Theory? ? Absolutely not. FBC is not woke, and we reject CRT. In this message, we examine why we believe that way.

The pastor has a monumental job—yet what has been considered above is not all his work. There is even more. As far as stopping up false teaching, that is a thankless task. Rarely will the minister be appreciated by those he is trying to rescue from eternal damnation, or those he is trying to correct because they have some wrong thinking. Even rarer still would be a thanks from a false teacher who comes to his senses and abandons the empty profession of God in favor of the genuine faith. Dear ones, let us be diligent to pay attention to what we are “giving heed to” in these days. Much needs to be rejected, and a whole lot needs to be ignored entirely so that we can focus on what matters.

There is hardly a need at the present time to justify a Christian thinking through the CRT / wokeness mess that is currently all the rage. We have to analyze it from a Biblical standpoint, and recognize the danger of this pre-planned assault not only on Christian values, but on the principles that have underpinned our Republic for hundreds of years. I knew it was past time to address the issue when I got these questions through our website: 1) Is Fellowship Bible Church (FBC) affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation (modern day apostles/prophets, 7 mountain mandate)? The Seven Mountain Mandate is a post-millennial, Pentecostal/charismatic dominion theology where the church is supposed to take over the pillars of society and then once the kingdom is established on earth, then Christ will return. 2) Is FBC a "woke" church? Do you espouse Critical Race Theory? Absolutely not. FBC is not woke, and we reject CRT. We are going to look at why we do that in these notes.

We continue our study in the sixth book of Matthew, focused on the teachings of Jesus on treasures. Christians are called to not seek earthly treasures but rather heavenly treasures. Jesus speaks about the natural decay of belongings, belongings that cannot be taken with you when you physically die. Jesus states to place their hope in Christ and His promises alone. We also focused on Jesus' words on the lamp of the body is the eye, in which He referred to a persons superficial earthly religion as having a stained heart of darkness. Additionally, Christians are called to serve God rather than mammon (money). We also focused on Christ's words on not worrying, but rather trust in Christ that he will provide for our necessities. God knows what we have need of, Christians are called to put our faith in Christ and lift up our prayer requests to Him.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt Postiff discusses the topic of storing up treasures. A Christian is commanded by God to not store up treasures on earth but rather store up in heaven! Earthly treasures cannot be taken with you and will eventually decay to dust eventually anyways. Focus on God's Word and store up for yourselves heavenly treasures, whatever they may be, which last forever and ever! "Wherever your treasure is there your heart will be also."

Paul gave Titus a very clear job description—to set the churches of Crete in order. They needed good pastors who were devoted to healthy teaching that comes directly from the Bible. And that is what is needed by every church, and every Christian, in every generation. We never “get over” these requirements for pastors or the teaching/exhorting/convicting type of ministry.

This morning we honor Christ through communion thanking the Lord for all His blessings he has so bountifully provided. In Psalm 103 we studied twenty blessings God gives to those who love Him.

In this message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch leads our continued study in the book of Ruth where we see the response of the potential kinsmen redeemer to Ruth and Naomi along with the reason why he gives the response that he does.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt shares how fasting applies to Christians today. Fasting is optional for the Christian and it is to be done privately. If it can be of help to focus you on prayer, repentance, and intercession, then do please make use of it. Regardless, be a person of serious prayer!

Paul is a servant and apostle whose goal is to see God’s elect come to faith and knowledge of the truth. This is founded upon the hope of eternal life which God has promised, and He cannot lie. The promise was made from eternity past, but has been manifested at just the right time through the vehicle of preaching. To Paul this preaching was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior. May you desire to live with the same kind of purpose as Paul—to help people be saved, sanctified and glorified. Furthermore, may you be one who can be called a “true child according to the standard of the commonly received Christian faith.” Simultaneously, you yourself need to be being sanctified so that your life reflects godliness. Finally, may God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ grant you grace, mercy, and peace.

The word "strangers" in the Scriptures are referenced often. This morning, James Widgeon leads us on a quest to studying some references in verses that discuss the term "strangers", focused on the meaning of the word and expression.

GMSA Missionary Tom Gibbons gives an update on the church planting and camp development ministry. Tonight's message focused on how God is progressing His ministry in GMSA. We are reminded on how believers are in the protection and mercy of Christ Jesus. "Nothing can separate us from the love of God".

Jesus taught in 6:5-8 that God rejects the prayer of hypocrites because what they really want is the recognition of others. They are not truly interested in the honor of God. They appear outwardly religious but are not truly so. Jesus also taught that God rejects the prayer of heathen (pagans, idolators) because they believe self-effort in repeated religious ritual will earn them notice before God (or “the gods”). Both are self-centered approaches to prayer. Instead, our prayer must be focused upon and centered upon God Himself. We learned from 6:5-8 that we must work hard to eliminate pride, empty repetition, worldliness, and a low view of God from our prayer lives. Now in 6:9-13, Jesus gives us a model prayer that shows the way. He says “You, therefore, pray like this…” There is a clear contrast here. Jesus has told us, to not be like the hypocrites, and to not be like the heathen: instead, YOU are to be different. The model prayer shows us that our prayers must: 1. Revere God. 2. Focus on God’s priorities. 3. Seek God for physical provision. 4. Ask God for spiritual provision. 5. Recognize God is king over all. If our prayers do this, and we pray genuinely, that this means that we do these things and are marked by these values.

In previous studies we have put a lot of emphasis and focus on Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and the judgement that God pronounced against them. We talked about the judgement coming because God who is sovereign had decided that it was time to vindicate His righteousness by orchestrating fatal judgement against the Assyrians. In this message, we will focus on how God is slow to anger and how He was going to display His power through righteous judgement on the people of Assyria.

In this message we study the three prayer requests that are made by the Lord in His high priestly prayer. These prayer requests include 1) Christ praying for Himself 2) Christ praying for the disciples and the church, that they would be protected and be joyful 3) Christ prays for the future believers that they will believe in Him.

In this message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch continues his study, where we see the Lord is pleased when we listen to wise council. Encouraged by Ruth's days in Boaz's field, Naomi instructed Ruth in the way she should go to insure a brighter future. Ruth carefully followed Naomi's directions to solicit redemption by Boaz, while the Lord had prepared Boaz to redeem Ruth. Only one potential obstacle remained, a relative nearer than Boaz.

God has decided how all things will be since the foundation of the world. But He has chosen to work through ways and means, not directly via angels or miracles. In praying, you become part of the infinite interconnection of events that God uses to accomplish His purposes. Why pray? God told us to! But we also pray so that we can be involved in His program. He decreed what would happen, and He prescribes that we pray, and in fact as we obey that, we show what God decreed includes that we pray. And then His reward is given to those who have willingly participated in His work on earth—so you can be involved in God’s work and be rewarded for faithfulness in the matter of prayer! Prayer shows dependence upon God, and this honors God. That is what we want to do—glorify God in everything.

In this message James Widgeon continues his study in the book of Nahum, wrapping up the last verses of the book. We covered that Nineveh would severely see God's wrath and that this country would become utterly defenseless to His righteous judgement. Nineveh's defenses would crumble easily. The future of this city was certain to be judge by God and would never recover. The udder destruction of this city brought happiness and mirth among the nations because Assyria had devastated the nations with her atrocities and cruelties.

Christ shows how the Pharisees' righteousness was deficient by exposing their hypocrisy in the matters of "charitable deeds", "prayer", and "fasting". All of these acts are supposed to be worship rendered to God, never displayed of self-righteousness to gain the admiration of others. Christians are to perform works, pray, and fast without the intent of public admiration, but rather to honor God and to bring glory to His name.

If properly keeping the Law before Christ’s death meant this kind of internal battle against sin—and it did—how much more is it the case than in this age, with the revelation and ministry of the Spirit that we enjoy. Will we engage the inner struggle against sin? If they were expected to live under this kind of moral code, so are we! Christ summarizes his teaching by saying that we are to be morally perfect as God is perfect. This is an impossible standard, but it is true nonetheless. Believers must have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, else they are not acceptable before God.

If there is someone who genuinely wants to get saved, and is afraid they are not listed in the Book of Life, quickly disabuse them of that thinking by telling them that God commands us to repent and believe the gospel. If you do that, you are saved, and thus prove that you were listed in the book. From the human perspective, since we do not and cannot know who is "in" and who is "out" in advance, we must not worry about who is in the book, and instead focus on obeying God, and everything will be fine. For us who want to share the life-giving message with others, our job is not to figure out if someone is elect. Our job is to proclaim the gospel. Never are we told to have someone wait and let them figure out if they are in the Book or not. They know by learning and properly responding to the gospel of Christ. For us who want to receive the life-giving message of Jesus, we do not look to the Book of Life. We look to the Lamb of God who saves. We repent and believe in Jesus Christ. He died to cleanse us from our sins and give us a new life.

In this message James continues the message from the book of Nahum where we see Nahum writing the most troublesome words from God, "I am against you, says the Lord of hosts." The Assyrians would become utterly destroyed. "Woe" is used to foreshadow the fall of Nineveh, with details of complete and utter destruction. The Lord condemns the Assyrians for three sins: their cruel atrocities, their greedy exploitation of others, and their delusion that they could insulate themselves from destruction.

If properly keeping the Law before Christ’s death meant this kind of internal battle against sin—and it did—how much more is it the case that in this age, with the revelation and ministry of the Spirit that we enjoy. Will we engage the inner struggle against sin? If they were expected to live under this kind of moral code, so are we! Christ summarizes his teaching by saying that we are to be morally perfect as God is perfect. This is an impossible standard, but it is true nonetheless. Believers must have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, else they are not acceptable before God.

If properly keeping the Law before Christ’s death meant this kind of internal battle against sin—and it did—how much more is it the case that in this age, with the revelation and ministry of the Spirit that we enjoy. Will we engage the inner struggle against sin? If they were expected to live under this kind of moral code, so are we! Christ summarizes his teaching by saying that we are to be morally perfect as God is perfect. This is an impossible standard, but it is true nonetheless. Believers must have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, else they are not acceptable before God.

And thus, we end our study of the first letter to the Corinthians. It has taught us to be a unified church, a church centered on preaching Christ, a holy church, a church that takes marriage seriously, that understands issues of conscience, a church that flees all kinds of idolatry, that knows about the issues of men and women, that examines ourselves at the Lord’s Table, that know and exercise our spiritual gifts, that love one another, that believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and of all people, and that gives to support God’s work. Just a few things to think about!

In this message James Widgeon continues his study in the book of Nahum, focusing on the detailed destruction of Nineveh A) the city is assaulted and B) the city if discredited. Following this, we begin studying on the destruction of Nineveh was demanded, focused on three charges. We are reminded that we serve the true living God. Christians must submit to Him, to understand better who God is and who we are. The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful, so how are we to avoid this sin? There is one assured way, studying God's righteous words and keeping his commandments.

In this message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch continues our study in the book of Ruth, where we see Ruth harvesting grain in Boaz's field and she takes the ephah of barley to the city at the end of the day. Upon learning that Boaz was the man who took notice of Ruth we see Naomi expressing God's blessing upon this man for dealing with Ruth favorably. Furthermore, we see that Naomi recognizes God's kindness is still present upon them. We see Naomi instructing Ruth to obtain redemption from Boaz.

If properly keeping the Law before Christ’s death meant this kind of internal battle against sin, how much more is it the case that in this age, with the revelation and ministry of the Spirit that we enjoy. Will we engage the inner struggle against sin? If they were expected to live under this kind of moral code, so are we!

From time to time, specific instructions on the matter of giving need to be reviewed in the life of the church. We have done that, and I pray it serves as a reminder to us that we are called to support God’s work. Christians are called to regularly give to support the work of the church, which includes missions, benevolence, support for pastor(s), local ministries, etc. If we do not do so, how do you suppose it will happen? No government support is forthcoming; no church welfare exists; there are no money trees in the back yard! We would simply cease to exist after a while. More to the point of this passage, believers who are struggling will appreciate a helping hand from a church, whether they live nearby or far away. The apostle Paul reminded the Gentile Christians in Rom 15:27 that it was an obligation upon them to support the Jewish Christians who in effect had sent out the gospel to them. That was an obligation in a particular situation; but the principle is a good one that we should remember those Christians with whom we have some level of connection, whether near or far, and help them. We do not and cannot know about every group of Christians, but those of whom we do know can be the objects of our concern, prayers, and benevolence.

In this message James Widgeon leads our continued study in the book of Nahum where we see a prophecy against Ninevah and how God is going to deal with their sinfulness. But also in the midst of it we see encouragement for God's people, Judah.

The world says, “blessed are those who are confident, bold, wealthy, powerful, fulfilled, following their hearts, "good." That's now how the Lord Jesus Christ looks at things. The eight traits of character proclaimed by Jesus are descriptions of what a person looks like when he "repents for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When a person comes into a right relationship with the king, he is blessed in the ways we read about in verses 3-12. At the same time, these traits are checkpoints for us to see if we are living responsibly before the Lord in manifesting the character traits that He seeks to develop in us. Like the letters from James or 1 John, these become tests of a living, genuine faith.

Repentant believers are like salt. Jesus refers to those who follow Him. They are the salt. The metaphor focuses on flavoring: followers of Christ flavor the world and help it to be a better place even though we are not a majority of the world’s population. Christians are the ones that show the world what it is to be a godly, repentant person. Their flavor is different. Their aroma, to change metaphors, is different than that of the world (like, but not precisely the same sense as in 2 Cor. 2:16).

Another “miniature parable” or metaphor for the repentant believer is that repentant believers are like light. Light refers to holiness or god-likeness in character = godliness. God is light (1 John 1:5). We are to be like Him! The world needs this light, otherwise it exists in pure darkness.

The Law and the Prophets refers to the Mosaic Law and the Prophets of the Bible’s Old Testament. This is a shorthand way of describing the entirety of the Old Testament revelation, that is, the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Malachi. What this would do to the audience is drive them to despair that the works they could do would never be good enough. There is where the poverty in spirit and hungering for righteousness become relevant. Works-based righteousness was insufficient to meet this impossibly high standard. The poor-in-spirit would recognize they needed something else, and that something is a righteousness from another Source, that would constitute them right before God. The Law always had that function, by the way: to point out sin, to condemn. It could not make anyone righteous. Law just does not do that.

Our missionary guest speaker provided a summary on the book of 1 Peter. An overview of 1 Peter focused on the importance of being a member of a local church to be your 'Haven'. Within the church believers are told to put away all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking. Christians are reminded to seek His Word and remember how His grace was given to those who believe in Him. Additionally, we are reminded not to cling to earthly things but cling to the promise of God of eternal salvation with Him. This earthly world is not a Christian's home and we must not be conformed to it. This commands that we seek out righteous living in a manner that reflects Christ in us.

In this message our missionary guest speaker shared with us how the corrupt government of Myanmar has devastated the country, attempting to use fear to rule over the people. Despite the unrest in this country we see God's hand bringing souls to Christ!

In this message Jansen Lorch continues his study in the book of Ruth, starting in chapter 2 as he shares how God is using Boaz to provide for the needs of Naomi and Ruth. We see Boaz receiving Ruth in his field with such compassion. Additionally, Ruth proved to be diligent in her care for Naomi.

The world says “blessed are those who are confident, bold, wealthy, powerful, fulfilled, following their hearts, “good.” No so the Lord Jesus. The eight traits of character proclaimed by Jesus are descriptions of what a person looks like when he “repents for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” When a person comes into a right relationship with the king, he is blessed in the ways we read about in verses 3-12. At the same time, these traits are checkpoints for us to see if we are living responsibly before the Lord.

We continue our study on the resurrection being necessarily true because our sin-wracked, frail bodies have to be transformed in order to be outfitted for the heavenly kingdom. Mortality has to be converted to immortality, and corruption to incorruption, for us to live with God forever. After that is done, death is conquered. So because Christ was raised, and He was seen by so many eyewitnesses, and because the resurrection is key to the whole Christian system, and because it will give us new bodies, and because we are certain of these things, we can serve God confidently without regressing back to such basics like “is this even true?”

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff shares some of his guidance about the COVID-19 vaccine. Pastor Matt is not against the COVID vaccine or vaccines in general. He has taken many vaccines; others he has not. The point of this message is to give you some food for thought and perhaps correct some irrational and fleshly thinking about the whole matter. It is to prevent you from saying rash things that you will have to take back later, or uninformed things that are false.

COVID may not be as bad as some of the numbers say. But it is real. A vaccine is one important tool in dealing with the problem. But you have to decide, with all of these factors in mind, whether you are able to take it or whether you should, and when. Over time we should expect that as the vaccine rollout continues that we will see a decline in serious cases amongst the elderly, and we will see a rise in cases among the young. The pandemic simply has to run its course. We cannot stop it. We may slow it down, but it will only come back to bite us later by "making up for lost time." That is just the nature of highly transmissible viruses.

You can view the message here.

In this message tonight we begin looking at eight character traits of Godly people. Christ Jesus speaks of eight virtues who He pronounces a blessing on those believers who exhibits these virtues, which include: 1) blessed are the poor in spirit 2) blessed are those who mourn 3) blessed are the meek 4) blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness 5) blessed are the merciful 6) blessed are the pure in heart 7) blessed are the peacemakers 8) blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Pastoral intern Jansen Lorch continues his study in the book of Ruth, where we see Naomi urging her daughter in-laws Orpah and Ruth to return home to their countries. Orpah turned back to her home country and Ruth did something different. Ruth clung to Naomi and expressed her complete loyalty to the family she married into. We see Naomi using a religious reference saying to Ruth to return to her gods. However, Ruth was converted from following false gods and chose to serve the true God, the God of Israel. Ruth swears a vow that she is the Lord's. Ruth will follow Naomi wherever she goes, swearing an oath. We later see Naomi's bitterness of the grief she had to endure and was asked to be called Mara, which means bitter. Naomi trusted in God, but possessed a hopeless outlook on the future accusing that God had judged her and brought her emptiness.

The resurrection is necessarily true because our sin-wracked, frail bodies have to be transformed in order to be outfitted for the heavenly kingdom. Mortality has to be converted to immortality, and corruption to incorruption, for us to live with God forever. After that is done, death is conquered. So because Christ was raised, and He was seen by so many eyewitnesses, and because the resurrection is key to the whole Christian system, and because it will give us new bodies, and because we are certain of these things, we can serve God confidently without regressing back to such basics like “is this even true?”

We celebrate Christ rising from the dead, praise the Lord! If Christianity is about anything, it is about a bodily crucified and bodily risen Jesus Christ. There is absolutely no question about this. Easter is not a remembrance of the annual arrival of Spring—it is a remembrance of Jesus coming back to life from the dead.

This is the gospel of Christ—He died for our sins and rose again from the dead. He died in our place, uniquely, once, so that would live for Him and with Him. Otherwise, we live against Him and apart from Him forever. If you grasp that, you have a grasp on the Christian message. If you do not grasp it, then do not imagine yourself to really understand Christianity or Good Friday or Easter! This is central to what these remembrance holidays are about.

In tonight's message we continue our study in the Beatitudes, focusing on righteousness and happiness. This context refers to ways on pleasing Him, not ourselves in some self-seeking service. It is for His glory and honor that we follow these commandments and for He says great is our reward in heaven if believers keep them.

The Holy Spirit will raise our bodies (Romans 8:11). We live a life now in the initial likeness of his resurrection (Romans 6:5), but we shall live a life in total likeness to it later.

Fellow believers: Behold God. He is EVERYTHING. He is ALL IN ALL. He raised up Jesus from the dead. He will raise up every Christian as well (2 Cor. 4:14). Christ will establish His reign openly on the earth in a society under the righteous rule of His Son and His people. All of this will be given back to God from Whom it came, that God might have all the glory among all creation.

Without resurrection, Christianity is a nothing. But since the resurrection of Christ is an historical truth, resurrection in general is a reasonable hope for us. It is imperative to hold fast to it and not be corrupted by the smooth words of false teachers. In the next section, Paul turns to the doubter’s question about what kind of body the resurrected person will have. Then, he turns to the final aspect of resurrection, which is when death is completely conquered.

Pastoral intern Jansen Lorch continues his study in the book of Ruth, where we see Naomi urging her daughter in-laws Orpah and Ruth to return home to their countries. Orpah turned back to her home country and Ruth did something different. Ruth clung to Naomi and expressed her complete loyalty to the family she married into. We see Naomi using a religious reference saying to Ruth to return to her gods. However, Ruth was converted from following false gods and chose to serve the true God, the God of Israel. Ruth swears a vow that she is the Lord's. Ruth will follow Naomi wherever she goes, swearing an oath.

In this message pastoral intern Jansen Lorch opens our study of the text in the book of Ruth. We learn of Elimelech's and Naomi's ruin in Moab.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff continues his study on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We focus on three main topics in the message proclaiming that Christ indeed was raised from the dead by God. A. All people will be raised from the dead, each at the designated time of the group they are in—saved or unsaved. B. Adam’s sin brought death to all, but Christ’s righteous act conquers death and brings eternal blessed life to all who belong to Him. C. As discouraging and disappointing as death is, it is not the end of your existence!

We had the privilege of receiving an update from Jeremy and Damaris Dodelers, on how the Lord is using them in France to spread the gospel. The current pandemic has provided obstacles the Dodelers did not anticipate. However, they have remained faithful in Christ that He will meet all of their needs and that the church building renovations will continue to progress. The government of France is not allowing church services to meet in person. However, the Dodelers have learned to adapt to the current situation and continue His ministry in other ways.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff continues his study in the book of Matthew, focused on a) Jesus moving to Capernaum in Galilee and b) Jesus preaching repentance and calling his disciples. We have learned about Jesus as light, as preacher of repentance, as one who calls people to minister for Him, and as a healer and preacher of the kingdom of God.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff continues his study on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We focus on four main topics in the message proclaiming that Christ indeed was raised from the dead by God. A. The real point of this is that no one is permitted to say they believe the Christian faith and at the same time deny resurrection from the dead. B. Let us suppose for a moment that our Romans 10:9 belief is invalid, that God did not raise Christ from the dead. We would not be real Christians. Our sins would be still on us. We know that horrifying thought. Even worse, if there were no resurrection, it would be only a small step to belief that there is no God. And if there is no God, then there is no way we would ever have come to the realization of our bad our sinfulness is because there would be no God to work that repentant knowledge within us. In the no-resurrection, no-God scenario, we would not have even a clue about how bad we are. As it is, we still do not know the depth of it, but we do know there is a depth! And thank God for that. C. But I want to ask a more practical question: How would your day-to-day life look different if you believed there is no resurrection? Would there be a practical difference compared to how you live now? Do you live in practice the same way as you would live if there were no resurrection? Putting it another way, does the resurrection of Christ have an impact on how you live Monday through Saturday? In what way can people tell you believe the resurrection of Christ? How does it change your conduct or outlook on…everything? Do you handle COVID in a specific Christian way, or do you handle it in practice and thought just like everyone else in the world? Do you handle trials differently than the world? Do you approach your work with a different perspective? Do you approach living for the Lord with a resurrection mindset, that, as we will learn at the end of the chapter, guarantees that our work for Christ will be useful? D. Verse 20 brings us back to reality. Christ is in fact risen from the dead. He is alive. The assumption of no resurrection is in fact false. Christians are not the most pitiable; there is hope beyond life; those who died before in Christ are not lost; Christians are not still in our sins; our faith is worthwhile; Paul is not a liar; and his preaching is full of spiritual value.

In this message speaker James Widgeon opens the scripture to the book of Nahum where we see the future fall of Nineveh by the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. We see the detailed description of God's judgement on this nation because of their sinfulness.

In this message, intern Jansen Lorch discusses what does it means to be a faithful father. While scripture tells us that children are to obey their parents, fathers have a critical role to instruct them in the way of the Lord. We review a list of commandments that fathers are to put into practice in raising children.

Do not be surprised when the world hates you. Why? 1. It is led by Satan. 2. It hates Jesus first. He was the first in the New Testament era to bear their hatred. 3. It hates righteousness. 4. It loves sin and darkness. 5. It does not seek the things of God. 6. It hates God the Father. 7. It hates Jesus without cause. The current “cancel culture” rage is just another manifestation of what we have talked about here. Be at ease, however, dear Christian, because we have nothing to worry about. Jesus was already cancelled 2000 years ago when Israel professed they had another king, and the Romans worked a terrible justice on Him and killed Him on cross. We are in Christ, so we have already been cancelled too. What to do then? We just keep on living for Jesus and ministering for Him without worry. We are not in a popularity contest. We know the world hates us, and has already cancelled us. That ship has already sailed. So we resolve ourselves to live for God and ignore the hype. Preach Christ. People need to know the Lord before they die.

In this message Pastor Matt reviews part 1 of the series on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, focused on the topics of the essential and literal Christian resurrection (both body and spirit) and the wrong views of the afterlife. We pick up this study on the topics of the saving Gospel of Christ, the content of the Gospel, along with Paul's place among the Apostles. Pastor Matt expands on the fact that the Apostle Paul preached everywhere, and among his converts were the Corinthians. Now, the question was this: would they hold fast to that gospel, or were they just temporary disciples?

We continue our study where we see Nahum speaking of the wickedness of Nineveh and how sinful the nation of Assyria had become. The Lord would soon empty His wrath on His enemies. He is slow to anger and exceedingly great in power. Who can stand against Him? The answer is very clear, none. Although God will have his justice we see in verse seven His compassion to His people if they remain faithful to Him. Judah will soon enough see justification.

In tonight's message Pastor Matt opens his message where we see John the Baptist had been thrown into prison for his bold rebuke of Herod Antipas. Immediately following, Jesus left Nazareth departing for Capernaum, which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali. Jesus begins His ministry preaching repentance and that the Kingdom of God is near.

This evening service Pastor Matt Postiff begins by answering a question stemming after Lazarus was raised from the dead did he suffer a second physical death or taken to heaven and did not suffer a second physical death? We then begin our study in Matthew 4, focused on Jesus passing the test in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. It's important to note that God's Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights. The devil wanted nothing more than to see Jesus stumble. Jesus could have created food for himself from nothing, let alone turning a rock into bread. However, Jesus was tested by the Spirit to trust in the Father that He would provide for His son. Again, the devil tempts Jesus by quoting Scripture but twisting its meaning (Psalm 91:11-12), but He knew that this passage dealt with trusting in God and not testing God. Jesus responded (Deuteronomy 6:16) recalling the Israelite's had tested God demanding that Moses produce water where there was none. A third time, the devil tempts Jesus with idolatry offering Him to rule the Earth and all its kingdoms and glory. Jesus commands the devil to flee and quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13-14, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve". Jesus passed all of the devils temptations as He put His trust in the Father. As believers it is critical that we know God's word so that we can pass temptations that come our way.

In this message Pastor Matt Postiff begins a series on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We focused our study this morning covering the topics of the essential and literal Christian resurrection (both body and spirit) and the wrong views of the afterlife.

In this message we had the privilege of having a virtual meeting with missionaries Mike and Marie Brunk, who serve in South Africa. They have recently begun a new ministry of addiction recovery called Village Mercy.

In this message, pastoral Intern Jansen Lorch explains Paul pronouncing his benediction of peace and mercy on those who believe in the standard; salvation is by grace through faith alone. Paul is commanding his adversaries to stop troubling him as he had already bore the marks of Christ Jesus. Lastly, Paul states that His grace prevails against any man-made system of works righteousness.

In this message, pastoral Intern Jansen Lorch introduces us to the book of Ruth. He treats the historical background, gives an overview of the book, and speaks about the purpose and theme of the author, showing how it connects to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Where does our church bulletin order of service come from? Is it in the Bible? Not exactly! But the idea is found in this passage of Scripture. Order in worship does not have to be completely scripted, nor is the order specified exactly in the Bible. But there must be a plan and ordered arrangement so that the service truly pleases the Lord. What was happening in Corinth was not orderly. It was confused and chaotic. There was simply too many things happening in the service—some right and some even wrong—for it to serve the purpose for which God designed the church.