Christmas is one of our favorite times of year! We celebrate the coming Messiah, enjoy(mostly) time with our families, and give gifts to one another that represent joy and love. It truly is a wonderful time!

The first Christmas, however, was not so wonderful for everyone. There were many different reactions to the birth of Jesus, and while some were positive, many were very against Him. Apathy, fear, anger, and scheming on one side met by rejoicing, praising, seeking, and sharing on the other.

What has been your response to Jesus? Do you find yourself reflected in one of those responses?

Jesus was not just promised to come in Bethlehem, but also promised to come again. We have time now to consider our response to who He is, what He has taught, and what He has done, but that time grows shorter every second leading to His return.

The gift of life through Him is free. The choice to accept it or not is yours. What is your response?

Join us at 2pm or 4pm on Christmas Eve as we celebrate Jesus’ birth, and look ahead to His return!

-Pastor Ben

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49357690

When we think about Christmas our tendency is to find glory in the story, and miss the true glory of the Savior! The prophecies spoken about Jesus’ birth in the Old Testament often come with dual meaning. Sometimes there is an imagery angle in an Old Testament character like Moses, Joshua, or David, but also point clearly to Jesus. Other times there is a prophecy that is fulfilled not just by one moment in Jesus’ life, but by several moments and characteristics seen in the Savior.

This week as we look into the prophecies declared fulfilled in Matthew 2:19-23 my hope is that we as a church can direct the glory in our hearts back towards the one who truly deserves it. The despised and rejected one. The new shoot rising up from the death and decay of Jesse’s lineage. The hope for the hopeless. Jesus the Nazarene!

Join us this Sunday at 8am or 11am for one of our worship services!

- Pastor Ben

Main Passage: Matthew 2:19-23

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49357687

Elohim, El Shaddai, El Elyon, God of Isra-El became Immanu-El by coming to earth over 2000 years ago. Prophesied some 700 years earlier, God through the prophet Isaiah predicted the Messiah’s birth, that God would be with us. Matthew 1 quotes Isaiah’s foretelling in verse 23: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

We as God’s people realize that God’s presence is among us now because of the redemptive work Jesus accomplished on the cross. We are grateful that we do not serve a distant god, but a God who is with us and intimately acquainted with all our ways.

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49357682

As we celebrate this Christmas season, we are diving into a series called “As Promised.” Last we discussed the promise of a conquering King, but this week we will look at the Kings heart. How does God view disaster, loss, pain, and suffering? When things seem to be promising, yet take a turn for the worst, do we have a King who cares?

Key Scripture - Hosea 13:14 - “I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.”

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49354326

Every Christmas we get reminded about “the reason for the season.” Simply put, we celebrate Christmas because of Christ! However, the more you look at “the reason” the more miraculous it becomes. Did you know Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies? Many of these prophecies began taking place during the time of His birth. Prophecy is more than a foretold event. Rather prophecy is a revelation of God’s heart and will.

Prophecy is more than simply evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, but in addition, prophecy reveals to us who the Messiah is and who we are. This is why we are so excited for our next series “As Promised.” We are going to discover more about the nature of Jesus, the nature of man, our purpose, and how we can practically live out “the reason for the season.”

Come join us this week as we discover the fulfilled promise of an awaited king born in a little town called Bethlehem.

Key Scripture - Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:7 ESV

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329810

It can be difficult for us to trust God when He works in mysterious ways. The Jewish believers of the early church felt this and struggled heavily with the ways God chose to move among the Gentiles. As they worked on understanding and accepting the direction God was leading in Acts 11 He just kept moving forward! There is truth to understand that nothing will be able to hinder God’s plan from being accomplished in His timing, and for His glory! His word and character help us to trust in the midst of confusing movement, but, like the Jewish believers we see throughout the New Testament, we don’t always take the help they offer…

If you’ve ever found yourself in a place where God was doing something, but you were not aware, ready, or comfortable with how He was doing it you will find good company in the beginning of Acts 11. The call to us as believers is to still find ways to trust and praise God as He moves, because when we do we witness Him going far beyond what we could ask or imagine. The book of Acts started with Jewish Followers of Jesus, but at this transition point we see the explosion of the faith in the Gentile world. It was among the Gentiles even that the term Christian was first used to describe the followers of Jesus. God truly works in mysterious ways, but we can always trust that His plan is "good, pleasing, and perfect.”(Rom 12:2)

Join us this weekend for our Celebration Sunday happening at the Weborg 21 center in Gering! One service at 11am followed by our annual Chili, Soup, Cinnamon Roll, and BBQ Meat Competition! God has given us much to celebrate, so come have a great time with us praising Him!

-Pastor Ben

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329809

It can be difficult for us to trust God when He works in mysterious ways. The Jewish believers of the early church felt this and struggled heavily with the ways God chose to move among the Gentiles. As they worked on understanding and accepting the direction God was leading in Acts 11 He just kept moving forward! There is truth to understand that nothing will be able to hinder God’s plan from being accomplished in His timing, and for His glory! His word and character help us to trust in the midst of confusing movement, but, like the Jewish believers we see throughout the New Testament, we don’t always take the help they offer…

If you’ve ever found yourself in a place where God was doing something, but you were not aware, ready, or comfortable with how He was doing it you will find good company in the beginning of Acts 11. The call to us as believers is to still find ways to trust and praise God as He moves, because when we do we witness Him going far beyond what we could ask or imagine. The book of Acts started with Jewish Followers of Jesus, but at this transition point we see the explosion of the faith in the Gentile world. It was among the Gentiles even that the term Christian was first used to describe the followers of Jesus. God truly works in mysterious ways, but we can always trust that His plan is "good, pleasing, and perfect.”(Rom 12:2)

Join us this weekend for our Celebration Sunday happening at the Weborg 21 center in Gering! One service at 11am followed by our annual Chili, Soup, Cinnamon Roll, and BBQ Meat Competition! God has given us much to celebrate, so come have a great time with us praising Him!

-Pastor Ben

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329809

Have you ever come to a moment in your life where the plans, ideas, and hopes you had moving forward all shifted into something unexpected? The early church in Acts came to many moments like this, but none ended with more impact than the salvation of the house of Cornelius. These gentiles were the opening of the tap that led to a flood still raging to this day. As a church we have to ask the question of our own community; “Who is truly unreachable with the Gospel?”. The answer is simple, but the implications change everything!

Join us this weekend for a dive into the word, worship, prayer, and focus on the call we have as the Body of Christ!

-Pastor Ben

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329808

This weekend we look at the conversion of Saul, who later calls himself the “foremost of sinners.” The last we heard of him, he had aided and agreed with Stephen’s stoning. What an enemy of the church! But not for long. God had a masterful plan for Saul’s life to bring him into the light, both literally and spiritually. Let’s celebrate the miracle together that God redeems even the worst of sinners and commit to carry that message to everyone we encounter!

Key Scripture - Acts 9:22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329807

Whose kingdom are you building? Difficult times, especially unexpected times, tend to reveal our motives and purpose. Is our life fully devoted for the purposes of Christ? Or are we set on pleasing ourselves?

Sometimes this can be tricky to discern. We are good at deceiving ourselves. Thankfully, God allows challenges, the unexpected, and failures to help expose our hearts so that we are aware of whose kingdom we are really building.

Come fellowship with us as we study Acts chapter 8 and how intense persecution and the unexpected revealed the mission of the church.

Key verse - Acts 8:4 “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.”

For Scripture, notes, upcoming events, & more:

http://bible.com/events/49329805