Napoleon Church of the Nazarene

Pastor Ben teaches on the second half of the Lord's Prayer as we dive into week two of our series, "Pray First". As we look at the progression of how Jesus taught the disciples to pray, we can see that it shows that God is over our past, present, and future. And when we end in agreement with "Yours is the kingdom, the power, the glory, forever and ever, Amen"; we are declaring our trust in God in all things.

We are in our third week into the "Pray First" series, learning about the Armor of God. Pastor Dave teaches on what it looks like to be ready to take on spiritual warfare, clothing ourselves with the Armor of God found in Ephesians 6.

We start our 21 days of prayer journey together as body of believers; renewing our hearts and minds back on Christ as we start the new year. Pastor Ben starts the week preaching on the first part of the Lord's Prayer and how Christ modeled to the disciples how to pray.

Pastor Dave teaches from Matthew 2 about the Magi who traveled to worship Jesus. We don't always think about the details behind this story. The Magi would have participated in pagan practices, yet God still broke through and led them to Himself. God can call anyone and everyone to Himself and even use whatever means He wants to break through. What a wonderful reminder that no one is too far gone for Jesus to save.

Our last Sunday of Advent, Pastor Dave teaches on peace. We take a look at Luke 1:46-56, "Mary's Song" and see the joy and peace in Mary's heart as she glorifies the Lord and sets her eyes upon God.

Pastor Ben teaches on "Joy" in our Advent series, "Changed in the Waiting". We look into Isaiah 12 and see that joy is not circumstantial, but rooted in our salvation through Jesus Christ. The joy we have in the Lord then becomes our strength in troubled times. We experience joy as we spend time in His presence, as a gift from the Holy Spirit; that we then in turn, get to share with the rest of the world.

We are in week two of our Advent series, "Changed in the waiting", where we take a look at the story of Zechariah. He gives praise to God for the love He had bestowed upon them through giving them a son, John the Baptist, who would be the forerunner for the greater gift of all; Jesus! It's a wonderful reminder for us that even in the waiting, He is still present with us; and even in our doubts, His love is persistent and patient with us. May His love for us compel to be a people of praise.

Have you ever had to wait? It can be so difficult to be patient in the process of waiting as we hold out for the hope to come. But when we think about HOPE as not mere optimism for something; but rather as, the confident expectation rooted in the something: like God's promises, our perspective changes in the waiting. We can look at Psalm 25:1-10 and see how David put his faith and patience into practice as he recalled the promises of God that brought about hope. If you are in a seasoning of waiting, you can hold on to hope as you continue to trust in God's character and see how He changes your heart in the process.

Pastor Ben ends out series, "Rooted in Relationship", with the commission to go and be light and salt to the world. He teaches from Matthew 5, where Jesus is calling us to be a light that shines in the darkness so others will see and glorify God. It's not a task but a life to be lived. We are all called to share the gospel. It's part of our identity in Christ as images bearers.

Pastor Dave teaches on the topic of friendship and how we were created to have fellowship and accountability. We look at John 15 how Christ calls us love one another. Jesus was a true teacher and model of what godly friendship is supposed to look and the intentionality and vulnerability it takes to grow deep rooted relationships.