The title of this Bible study is “A True Mountaintop Experience”. We use the phrase often for high moments, for special moments, and here we have in the Scriptures, a true mountaintop experience. True means, according to Webster’s Dictionary, “the quality or state of being accurate (as in alignment or adjustment). And in our passage today, the Lord through His Divine Word will put key life necessities into straight and accurate clarities for us, so we may have mountaintop experiences with Him. Not just occasional, but as often as we choose to make the journey to meet with Him.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

And today, what a passage for the New Year, what a passage for anytime, for everyday; We are on foundational truths. Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of God, and the Lord is going to lay the foundational truth of what is required of anyone to be His.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

Christmas truly is about gifts, and He is Jesus the Christ, God’s Gift to you. Will you receive the Gift God offers you today?

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In today’s message, you will get to know more about the heart of God and His heart for you. You will also get the relief, and release, that He is patient with you. He is not expecting nor requiring instant perfection of you, in fact He will confirm that He is the potter and we are the clay, and He is in work creating His beautiful vessels (that’s me and you). But there is a calling on our side, the backend of one of the most quoted and claimed promises of God in all the Scriptures (Jeremiah 29:11-13), where yes God has a great plan for our lives, but there is the calling to seek Him, to search out His marvelous ways and truths, with all our hearts.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In this message, the religious leaders come for another confrontation with Jesus. They challenge Jesus to put on a show for them, to perform some spectacular miracle, not these small-time things like feeding 5,000 and 4,000 from just a few loaves of bread. After the confrontation, Jesus is going to get alone with His disciples for some quality one-on-one time and He is going to tell them, beware of the “leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians”. He is going to tie the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000, and this confrontation, to teach them something very rich, and something very essential, for their walk of faith. And so, this preserved word for us, to apply the same, something rich and something essential – for our walk of faith.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In this message, we come to the feeding of the 4,000. The setting is in Decapolis, a predominantly Gentile region. Jesus is very specifically, very clearly, letting it be known to all people, that His Gospel is open to all people. Jesus is on His way to be with the Gentiles, to heal them, to minister to them. In these days, this was an extreme violation of their religious traditions. Jesus is letting it be known He is the bread of life to every man, all who will come and partake.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In today’s message, we see Jesus healing in unexpected ways. Why did Jesus heal this way? It's simply a demonstration that you can't put God in a box. Some people want to put God in a box, believe that he only works a certain way or go to certain people or place. And a lot of people struggle entering into the freedom that Christ has for them because they believe he only does it this way, or he does something that way and they miss the freedom of Christ. He's always on the move. And he's not in a box. He's out about the world ready to touch and heal and minister and talk and draw.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In this message, we read of a confrontation of religious leaders and Jesus. These religious leaders have come up from Jerusalem to observe and criticize Jesus. We could focus in on the judgmental heart and critical hearts of these men, which there is; but before us today is one of the deepest, heart revealing passages in all the Gospel. The intent is not so-much to see the heart of these religious critics, but to see our hearts. God will use these critics, to speak a deep profound message to those who have an ear to hear (7:14). Hear me, and understand this the Lord is saying, I want to show you your heart, and what I am going to say The heart of the problem, is the problem of the heart.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In this message, Jesus will walk on water, getting to the disciples in the boat, who were in the middle of a long, long trial as the winds and the waves were against them. We also go through trials. Jesus walked on water not only to prove His deity, but also to show that there is no storm that can keep Him from coming to us. So often we limit God, we think our problem is too big for Him. We think even though He created the universe, He can’t help us with our problem. This message helps answer the question “Where is God in the Trials.”

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas

In this message, we come to one of the most well-known stories, miracles, in the Bible and that is the feeding of the 5,000 (plus women and children – so 15-20 thousand),. This story is recorded in all four of the Gospels (Matt. 14:13–21; Luke 9:11–17; John 6:1–14). Jesus performed miracles to prove He was God, but also each miracle has a spiritual application that goes with it. And spiritually, the Lord feeds us His Word.

Calvary Chapel Anne Arundel | Pastor Ray Bollas