Petra Podcast

Mark is a fascinating book. One of the reasons scholars believe Mark’s writing is that of an eyewitness is because of the detail in the writing. Back when this text was written writers did not add a lot of unnecessary detail if it didn’t advance the plot. Mark adds narrative detail that only an eyewitness would bother recounting or remembering. And Mark was the eyewitness account of Peter, and Mark was his secretary.
The first three chapters of Mark reads very much like the prologue to a story. It’s setting up foundational truths about who Jesus is, about his character and his early ministry.
Portrait of Jesus- Jesus is Lord of the waves and the wind. And this is a profound portrait that will build us up in our faith and open our eyes.

The life of this historical figure named Jesus was so unique that the shocking affects of his life are still being felt 2,000 years later. Jesus is of course now the most famous Jewish rabbi who ever lived, and the most famous human being who ever lived.
By now everyone has diverse opinions of him, and filters through which we perceive him. Wouldn’t it be amazing to clear away all that clutter and confusion and hear from an eye witness who saw all of his greatest miracles and listened to his teachings. Wouldn’t it be amazing to get the inside scoop from the one who knew him best- his right hand man, Peter?

This message is for both parents and non-parents alike. I want to share some insights about influencing others in such a way that our faith becomes contagious and is passed on to others.
I will be using examples of parenting but you will see that these insights apply to our other relationships as well.
I believe the primary goal of parenting from a biblical perspective is to pass on the Christian faith to our children. It is not to make them successful although we want that too. The Bible says “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” We realize in parenting that eternity is at stake.
It is also the goal of our lives as followers of Jesus to pass on our faith as we rub shoulders with a hopeless world around us.

Learning from the sacrifice and selflessness of the first responders within our community, how do we learn to be a first responders community to people like Dahav, that seek and save and rescue the lost; that are the first on the scene of human wreckage.

First Timothy is a letter from a spiritual father to his son. It is a letter from a mature leader to a young leader, a mentor to an apprentice. Paul is writing to Timothy to instruct him on how to lead the believers in Ephesus. That’s what this letter is.
So, in chapter one Paul instructs Timothy to teach certain men to stop teaching strange doctrines, chapter he tells Timothy how to instruct believers regarding prayer, chapter 3 he tells Timothy what character traits to look for in new leaders, chapter 4 he instructs Timothy to read the scriptures publicly and to exhort and teach, chapter 5 he give Timothy practical instructions about how to care for the poor among the believers. This brings us to chapter 6, our text for today.
Here in chapter 6 Paul tells Timothy how to instruct followers of Jesus in regards to money. How believers should think about money and use their money, and this morning this is our purpose as well. Now you will see in this text, that right in the middle Paul leaves the topic of money for a moment and then comes right back to it. This is what we will do as well.

Luke 24 & Acts 1 – We’re going to be learning about the Holy Spirit. These two books are a continuation of one another. The author Luke is trying to show us is that the ministry that Jesus started on the earth, in the gospel of Luke, is continued through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. In fact, Jesus didn’t even start his ministry until the Holy Spirit came upon him in power in Luke 3. Jesus himself was dependent on the H.S.
When you are born again and the Holy Spirit lives inside of you you become a continuation of his life and ministry on the earth.

When we think of the forefathers we often thing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But we often forget the importance of the fourth father of our faith, Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob.
The Hebrew name Joseph means “to add to”or “repeat.” I know there are a lot of you with large families, and by the time you get to child 6, 7, 8, 9….picking names gets tough. So when Jacob got to his 11th son he basically said, “Let’s call him “Rerun.”
But saw this “rerun” as a one of a kind and would use this him to save many nations.
Joseph was also a dreamer. God prophetically gave him dreams and so he knew from an early age what God’s destiny was for him and his life.

We are in the midst of a series in which we are looking at the lives and legacies of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Today we are looking at the life of Jacob.
- Jacobs father was Isaac and Abraham was his grandfather.
- Rebecca was his mother
- Jacob became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel
Jacob was a twin and his brother Esau was born just seconds before him. He actually was holding onto Esau’s heel as they came through the birth canal. This meant that Esau was the oldest and had the right to the birthright which granted him a greater portion of the inheritance and also the greater blessing.
- Esau was a rugged outdoorsy, hunter and adventuresome type and was his father’s favorite.
- Jacob was more of a homebody and favorite of his mother.
- Because of the parents playing favorites with the kids it set up the kids to hate each other.
Jacob and Esau lived most of their lives in conflict with each other. Even in their mother’s womb they were struggling with each other. Rebecca felt this pushing and shoving going on inside of her. So she asks God about it.

We are in the second week of a four-part series called Four Fathers—an intentional play on words recognizing the four main characters of the second part of Genesis who also would be the forefathers of our faith. We often refer to these men as the patriarchs. They were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
Last week Pastor Lester began our series taking a look at Abraham who is the main character in Genesis chapters 12 to 25. Isaac, Abraham’s son, is our focus this morning. Isaac doesn’t get nearly the print space that Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph have, but his story and the lessons we can learn from him are fascinating nonetheless.
Many of you may be familiar with much of Isaac’s story—his long-promised and then miraculous conception, his date with destiny on Mount Moriah, finding Rebekah his wife, and then finally the embodiment of the term “sibling rivalry” with the births of the twins Jacob and Esau.
As I dug into Isaac’s story, I was struck by something that I hadn’t really considered before: One of God’s primary purposes for Isaac was simply to keep the faith of his father Abraham. Think about it. God began by calling Abraham out of a pagan land to journey with God the rest of his life as a nomad in another pagan land. God began teaching Abraham what it meant to worship Him, follow Him, and trust Him. Abraham became a man of faith who served God wholeheartedly.

We are beginning a new series called Four Fathers. We will be talking about four of the patriarchs of our faith - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. The title is a play on words. They are four of our forefathers.
Abraham is the first patriarch of Israel. A patriarch is a leader or ancestor of a family. Abraham became the patriarch of the Hebrew nation as well as other peoples. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all refer to Abraham as their father.
Gal 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Because we are in Christ, Abraham is our father. The blessings of Abraham continue down through the generations to us today.