In this week's passage, God forms physical Adam and gives him biological life. Adam is placed in an extravagant garden. But why, in this beautiful garden, would God place one tree from which he is not to eat? It’s to awaken Adam’s spiritual life.
What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
This is the first sermon in our series on the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis. From today's passage we'll see three things: 1) God is; 2) God is Creator; 3) God is good.
This is the last week of our Crazy Busy series. We've talked about dangers, causes and principles, but this week we're going to look at the one thing each of us absolutely must do to combat the Crazy Busyness in our lives.
Do you take a day off from working? Is your day off filled with chores and errands? How are you sleeping? As we continue our series on battling Crazy Busyness, this Sunday we're going to examine why rest is so crucial for each of us, and how God has designed us to rest as a fundamental act of trust in him.
Last week, we saw that busyness is serious business. Busyness is dangerous because it can choke out the power of the gospel in our hearts. So how do we avoid being Crazy Busy? We're going to examine how, in the midst of a crazy busy day, Jesus stayed on the mission that God gave him. And we'll see how we can battle crazy busyness and keep on God's mission for our own lives.
Is it hard to remember the last time you had five minutes to just sit and reflect?
At the end of the day, are you exhausted, but still wish you could have accomplished more?
Why are our lives always so Crazy Busy? In this sermon, we're going to explore the cause of this busyness and argue that busyness isn't just an inconvenience...it's dangerous!
How would you like to grow this year? In this final Advent Song, John the Baptist exhorts "all people" to "prepare the way for the Lord." As we reflect on 2016 and look ahead to 2017, this is a fitting time for us to heed John the Baptist's call to evaluate our current way of life and strive to make greater room for Christ.
At Bethlehem God became human. It’s an enormous descent when God the Son leaves the Godhead (Trinity) and is birthed as a baby in Bethlehem. A huge descent! But once his mission is accomplished, he is exalted to the highest place, returning to the Godhead as Jesus Christ our Lord and God. You are invited to come and experience this enormous plunge Jesus endured for us from highest high to the lowest low and back again so that we might live in a relationship with God forever.
Simeon received the unique promise from God that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes. This song is his response to the fulfillment of that promise: the moment when he held the baby Jesus in his arms. One of the lyrics of his song is, to paraphrase, "Now I can die in peace." What would it be like to be to able to face death with that kind of contentment? The Bible tells us that if we are in Christ, we too can not only die in peace, but we can live in peace too!
The song the angels sang to the shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus was a song of glory to God and peace to all who will accept Christ as Lord and Savior. What is peace? Where does it come from? How can we have it?
We're looking at Mary’s Song (Luke 1:39-56), often called "The Magnificat" from the first line, "My soul magnifies the Lord." Mary is a troubled teenager who finds herself in an anxious yet glorious situation. Troubled because she is pregnant and unmarried, yet she knows she’s a virgin.
But when God speaks to her, affirming his plan for her, she moves quickly from anxiety to adoration. It’s remarkable what a spoken word from God will do to the countenance of your soul. A word from God to you could move your soul from anxiety to adoration in an instant. Come…let’s talk about it.
This is the first of 4 "Songs of Advent" we'll look at during the Advent season. Zechariah's song of praise to God can be found in Luke 1. What does it show us about drawing near to God?
Today we conclude our sermon series on the Gospel of John with this question: Is Jesus really the only way to God?
Our series on the Gospel of John, "Life-Changing Encounters With Jesus," is almost over. Throughout his gospel. John gives us seven "signs" -- miracles performed by Jesus -- that point to the fact that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. But there's also an 8th sign, and it's the most significant and amazing of them all: the resurrection of Jesus.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, this really is "life-changing" for all of us who believe in Him. Specifically, we receive 3 things: a new body, a new family, and new power.
In John 20:31, John tells us the reason why he wrote this Gospel: "...that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." What does it mean to have life in Jesus' name? The aim of our fall sermon series is to try to answer that question.
Today we look at the dramatic, moving story of Jesus bringing His dead friend, Lazarus, back to life. How will this story change our view of Jesus? Will we let Him into our hearts, and allow Him to change us?
We welcome Dr. Mark Jennings, Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Head of School and South Shore Christian Academy in Weymouth, MA. May the Lord speak clearly to us through Dr. Jennings' words.
Our fall sermon series, "Life-Changing Encounters With Jesus," is a study of the Gospel of John. We are told explicitly by John why he wrote this book: ..."that you may believe, and by believing, that you may have life in His (Jesus') name" (John 20:31). This week we look at the miracle of Jesus walking on water. What two things do we learn about Jesus from this event, and more importantly, how will it change our lives?
We're taking a break from our fall sermon series on the Gospel of John for one week. Pastor Larry preaches a special sermon on what the Bible teaches about our attitudes and habits when it comes to being good stewards of our resources.
This week’s “Life-Changing Encounter with Jesus” is Jesus feeding thousands from a boy’s lunch. The hope from this encounter is that everyone would recognize him as the Messiah, the Son of God. However the Scripture indicates that they run after him because he provided food when they were hungry. That was quite a trick; let’s see it again! They didn’t get it that he is Lord and God. Careful that you are not using the Lord as your Celestial Caterer or Servant in order to get what you want, instead of serving the living God who wants to be the Lord and Master of your life.
This is the fourth installment of our series on the Gospel of John entitled "Life-Changing Encounters With Jesus." It tells of the third "sign" that John writes about in his gospel in order to demonstrate that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. An encounter with Jesus changed the life of a paralyzed man; could it change ours as well?
