The Ark Encounter

Noah, Preacher of Righteous

Lessons in Genesis

Lessons in Genesis

The fallen ones

Nephilim

sons of God

Supernatural

Lessons in Genesis

Cain and Abel

Persecution of Christians

Northern India

Nigeria

King David

Repentance

King David Repentance

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-12

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

Sermon Summary:

In Psalm 51, you can see that David was completely crushed by guilt and shame. He described himself as a man full of iniquity and sin. When you have messed up and have done things you know you shouldn’t have done, you feel that physical weight upon you and that crushing sensation of the emotions in the heart. Disobedience to God has a way of putting spiritual separation between us and the Lord. It's not that God has gone away from us, but there's a kind of an invisible wall that we’ve built between us and the Lord.

And when we are guilty, when we've made a mess of our lives, when we've made serious mistakes or things that we've done to hurt other people, the only response is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God. The only way that we can make that guilt and sin and wrongdoing go away is to go before the Lord and say, "Lord, I have made a mess of things. Lord, forgive me.  Help me to turn from this mistake and this way of thinking.

The dust reminds us that we are broken finite creatures in need of God's mercy to sustain us not only for forgiveness of sin but life itself. So the act of putting ashes on your head is a dependence on God, but it's also a sign that Lord, I'm sorry and I'm repenting. And we put the sign of the cross as the a sign of where that forgiveness comes from. Through Christ's death on the cross, we're forgiven. The Christian life is based on grace, which means it anticipates that we're going to mess up and stumble. And when we do, God's ready to receive us back and forgive us, to set us back on our feet and get us going where we're supposed to go.

Original Sin

Paradise Lost

Sermon Series: Lessons in Genesis

Scripture Title: The Fall

Scripture Reading: Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭13‬ “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””

Sermon Summary:

   Our passage today is historically known as the Fall of Humankind. It’s the day when sin enters the world. It’s the day the first humans fell out of grace and out of fellowship with God. Eve believed Satan’s lie that they could be just like God. They could be in charge. The lie that humans seem to buy into is to replace God with ourselves. It’s the arrogance of saying I won’t do things God’s way. I’ll make my own framework for living. We decide to leave God out of the picture and be the master of our own lives.

   Both Adam and Eve gave into the temptation from Satan to disobey God resulting in removal from the Garden and separation from God. Spiritual and physical death entered the world. Original sin, the desire to disobey God and rebel, was passed on to all of Adam and Eve’s descendants. We are born with a fallen nature that is self centered and rebellious. We are born broken by sin. The fall of humans from grace and fellowship with God explains why the world is as it is today with warfare, struggle, deception, disease, death and broken relationships. But God has repaired what was broken through His Son Jesus Christ. Restoration and renewal are available if we’ll put our faith in Jesus and surrender to Him.

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The Moral Compass

Social Justice

In fellowship with God

Sermon Series: Lessons in Genesis

Scripture Title: In The Image Of God

Pastor Greg Wiest

Scripture Reading: Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭26‬-‭31‬ “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”

Sermon Summary:

Every one of us is made in the image of God. We are unique. We have free will. We have the ability to think and reason outside of ourselves. We are moral. We have a built in moral conscience that lets us know right from wrong and good from evil. We have an internal soul that will never cease to exist. In the final resurrection, all those who have died will awake some to everlasting life with God in heaven and some to shame and everlasting contempt separated from God in Hell.

God made us in His image to be in relationship with Him. It gives God pleasure to be in fellowship with the humans He created. John 3:16 declares that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God’s desire is that we live our lives in communion with him through faith in Jesus Christ. God created you and designed you to be in relationship with Him. He gave us purpose to be here on the earth. Every human is made in God’s image and every human is valuable and precious to God. We protect and value all human life. God created you and designed you exactly as you are supposed to be with a soul and a unique personality. Everyone matters to the Lord. And His desire is that we come into fellowship with Him through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

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Intelligent Design

Tale of Two cities

The age of wisdom

Sermon Series: Lessons in Genesis

Scripture Title: In the Beginning

Pastor Greg Wiest

Scripture Reading: Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

Sermon Summary:

   In Genesis Chapter 1 we are taken back to the beginning of all things in the world. God is eternal with no beginning and no end. In the beginning God created the heavens in the earth. God created everything in the universe out of nothing. With just His spoken Word, God created light and caused it to illuminate the darkness. God simply says something and it becomes a reality. God brings order from chaos. God separates light from darkness and land from the sea. He creates some creatures for the land and some for the water and some to inhabit the skies. He provides food for all the animals. God made humans in His image. After each day of creation, Genesis 1 repeats the phrase that “God saw that it was good.” After God made man in His image, Genesis concludes in verse 31, “God saw all that he made, and it was very good.”

   Genesis 1 gives us a few guiding principles for navigating through Scripture and through life itself. First, everything begins and ends with God. God is sovereign and the causation of all that happens on the earth. Second, we live and have our existence according to God’s design. Life is precious to the Lord and also to us. Every human being matters to the Lord and we should view other humans as God sees them. Third, because God is the source of everything, he deserves our worship and adoration. We are to praise God and give Him all the Glory. Lastly, God brings light to darkness. If you are in spiritual darkness, God will bring you into the light and give you eternal life if you come to faith in Christ.

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Sermon for January 25 due to snow closure

Discipling Children

Self Identity

Raving fans

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Scripture Title: Make the Lord Visible

Pastor Greg Wiest

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 6:6-9 "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Sermon Summary:

Today’s message is about the importance of God’s Word and imprinting it on our hearts and on our children’s hearts. The context for our passage is that God had given the Israelites the Ten Commandments. They'd escaped slavery in Egypt and they were a nation of people coming out of a pagan culture. Living in the promised land, they would be surrounded by pagan Canaanite cultures that were saturated with evil and the occult. The Lord was reshaping them to live according to His principles and to become His people. The law was meant to help them live in a way that would help them to flourish and be blessed as a nation and as a people. Today, self-identity has taken center stage in American culture. Much of what our children are taught is confusing and it conflicts with God's Word and His framework for living. As Christians, our identity is in Christ. We need people to see that we belong to the Lord. We can make our identity visible by wearing a cross as a necklace or a bracelet, wearing one of our Got Hope church t-shirts, or having a Christian bumper sticker on our car. We want to build a Christian culture within our household. You could have the Bible and Scripture verses visible in your home. You should have daily family devotions, pray together, and talk about the sermon and the Sunday school lesson after worship. We want children and our families to know what is in the Word of God and how it applies to our lives. When we make God’s Word and his framework central to our lives, we're setting the foundation of following Jesus and living as He would have us live.

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Discipling Children

Obeying parents has to be learned

Must be consequences for disobedience

Kids natural sense is to disobey and get their way

The most important task any parent or grandparent to do 

Pastor Greg Wiest

Scripture Title: Training Children

Scripture Reading: Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬ ‭                

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Sermon Summary:

The influence of parents on children can never be underestimated. They watch us and copy our behavior, our communications, our attitudes and our values. We set out patterns for living for our children. Our Scripture is about setting the right direction for our children in life. Making sure that they take a pathway that leads to life and fellowship with Jesus. The most critical thing that we can do is introduce our children to Jesus and invite them to put their faith in Jesus through prayer. We want them to understand that eternal life is only through faith in Christ and we want them to have that solid anchor of faith for when the storms of life come. Raising up a child in today’s world is a challenge. We need to build an inner resilience and a spiritual strength within them, so that they will be able to stand strong against temptation and the darkness of the world. We do this by bringing our kids to worship every Sunday and through daily prayer and devotions at home. We do this by raising up our children in Godly behavior through discipline. We teach our children to respect authority, to not use profanity, to be truthful, to apologize when they’ve done wrong, to be kind, and to help and serve others. We teach them a strong work ethic and help them to find their calling in life. As parents, we offer guidance and wisdom and help them to understand the Lord’s place in their calling in life.

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Discipling Children

Building Solid Relationships

Digital Natives

Gen Z

Pastor Greg Wiest

Sermon Title: A Generation that Forgot

Scripture Reading: Judges‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬-‭12‬

“After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger”

Sermon Summary: Gen Z has grown up during one of the greatest declines of Christianity in America. Today only 20% attend church regularly. On a positive note, the largest uptick in people coming back to church have been young men in Gen Z. The easiest people to reach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ are kids. People 16 and under are most open to becoming followers of Jesus. Our nation has become less Christian because we haven’t been as intentional as we could be in raising our children up in the Lord. The influences of the world on our children has been more profound than ever, especially with the digital world pervading every aspect of our lives. In our passage today, we are told that an entire generation grew up who had forgotten the Lord and what He had done for Israel. We forget our identity in the Lord, often because the generation before us did not teach it to us. This is what happened to Israel and what has happened today. There is a price to pay for skipping church and not teaching the Bible. Worship etches into our kids hearts and our own hearts the importance of God and His Word. Nearly 60% of kids who are in church drop out when they are old enough to decide for themselves. So how do we win the next generation back to the Lord. We need to teach them that the world and all that it has to offer cannot even begin to compete with Jesus. Jesus is the source of life and truth. He offers real love and joy to those who find Him. Gen Z has already seen what the world has to offer and found that the world is hollow and unfulfilling. They’ve come to Jesus because Christ has something real to offer. Real forgiveness, eternal life and a real meaning and a purpose for living. To reach the next generation requires building solid relationships with them as a bridge to the Lord. Parents need to begin at home by talking about the Lord and praying together. Befriend a Gen Z person and take an interest with the hope of sharing the Gospel with them.

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