Nelsonville Assembly

Joy. The Christmas season is filled with expressions and promises of it. The Bible speaks a great deal about Joy as well, but the biblical idea of True Joy ultimately comes from God's gift of Salvation. From Psalm 98, the inspiration behind Isaac Watt's writing the famous hymn "Joy to the World" is the text from which Pastor Isaiah discusses and calls us to pursue True Joy this year.

Before the sermon, Pastor Isaiah shares an exciting Missions Update for our church as we take on monthly support of two new missionary teams.

In a brief message, Pastor Isaiah explains from I John 4 why Jesus said love would be the mark of His followers, not just at Christmas, but in all of our lives. Love is a foundational aspect of the Christian life because our God is Love.

To conclude the service, our church gets a chance to hear from Pastor Pedro Soto, from Lion of Judah Church.

In the first week of Advent 2019, we are reminded of the meaning of the Advent season and the history of this tradition. After a devotional with the kids by Melia Jesch, Pastor Isaiah turns us to Psalm 130 and reminds us of the basis for True Hope in the Christian life.

In addition to the message on hope, Pastor Isaiah concludes the service talking about membership and welcoming Joel and Mandy Swisher into our membership here at Nelsonville Assembly.

In our final week of this series in 2019, Pastor Isaiah looks at how God used Philip not only to take the Gospel to Samaria, but also to start the spread of it to the ends of the earth through the Ethiopian convert in Acts 8.

The mission to spread the Gospel to every people, nation, and language on earth is still our mission today. Pastor Isaiah recaps a recent trip to Guatemala for that purpose and shares how our church is living out this aspect of our calling to help reach the world today!

The temptation to pursue supernatural gifts, or experiences, but to miss the point of why they happen is commonplace today.

Pastor Isaiah demonstrates a proper biblical view of these things from both Acts 8 and I Corinthians 12. Having a right view of God and His work is paramount to properly glorifying Him. Jesus is point. Proclaiming His Gospel is our mission. Any focus or pursuit other than that misses the point and leads us astray.

Following the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, God pushes His people out from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions, including Samaria. With Philip, the Gospel goes into Samaria.

Pastor Isaiah focuses us in on miracle of this event and how God moves in power with this group of people impacts us today. Starting with Samaria, God has used His people to take the Gospel around the world to redeem His people from every tribe, nation, and language just as He promised.

As we return the Book of Acts and to the story of Stephen, we see some striking contrasts between this follower of Christ and the religious leaders of his day. The result of their hatred toward Jesus leads to Stephen giving his life as the first Christian martyr. Just as Jesus was worthy of that great sacrifice by Stephen, still today He is worthy of us giving our all as well.

II Peter 3:18 is a key passage for Pastor Isaiah and for our church in terms of vision and ministry goals. In this sermon, Pastor Isaiah challenges us with the clear commands of Scripture to be "making the most of our time" in every day. To be people who are committed to living as God has called us, to be growing in our experience and relationship with Him, and to be constantly building our knowledge of who He is and has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ.

In I Peter 1:3-9, the apostle speaks to us about the merciful gift of God to His people in a "Living Hope." Pastor Isaiah unpacks these verses to show us the beauty and the confidence that this gift at work in a Christian should produce.

We long for the day when the brokenness of this world is no more, and we are given eternal life that is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" and we believe with a "Living Hope" that we will indeed see that day come.

Salvation by Faith Alone is at the heart of the Reformation teaching. Rome has attempted to refute this teaching by looking to James 2, but Pastor Isaiah goes to that text to demonstrate what James is addressing and what Paul addresses in Romans 3-5 are not contradictory statements.