Various April 24, 2022 PM.

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.

Philippians 3:20-21 and 4:1-3 April 24, 2022 AM.

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!

Haggai 2:1-9 // Hebrews 12:1-8 // Hebrews 12:25-29 // Ezra 3:12-13 // Ezra 5:1-17 // Ezra 6:1-14 April 24, 2022 SS.

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.

Matthew 17:14-21 April 20, 2022 PM.

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.

Matthew 17:1-13 April 17, 2022 PM.

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.

1 Corinthians 15 April 17, 2022 PM.

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.

Romans 1:3-4 April 17, 2022 SS.

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!

1 Peter 3:18-20 April 15, 2022 PM.

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?

Matthew 16:18-19 April 13, 2022 PM.

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.

Matthew 16:24-28 April 10, 2022 PM.

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!