Port Orchard Church of the Nazarene

Today Pastor Jerry explored how humans have historically given God, or the gods, attributes we ourselves have desired. In our present day this trend has manifested itself in a very generic, distant, tolerant and civil picture of God. He went on to expose how this misguided picture of God has led to a large population of Christians still viewing themselves as Lord of their own life.

This week, we took a bit of a detour from Hell to focus on something the Bible actively talks about- the relationship between God and Jesus. In the book of John, the author makes a point several times to bring attention to the fact that Jesus and God are one. He even goes as far as to say in John 14 that not only are the Father and the Son one, but so is the rest of the family! This means that the Gospel is not the news that we can invite Jesus into our lives- the Gospel is the news that Jesus has received us into His life!

This week, Pastor Jerry continued with last week's message on relativism to clarify a few things, specifically about how Hell is completely different from what is generally taught and accepted.

In this week's message on Hell and Salvation, we explore the fallacy of relativism, the singular truth of Jesus as the light of the world and the only way to the Father, and whether this means that those who do not trust him are doomed to eternal conscious suffering in Hell.

Note from the Sound Desk: Due to an issue with our recording computer, the first ten minutes of audio were lost permanently. We did what we could to remedy this and we believe it to be fixed, but wish to convey that any audio missing was purely due to a technological failure.

This week, Pastor Jerry spoke a bit on differing perspectives. Up until the last few hundred years or so, people generally stayed within their own little communities. Until cars became more affordable, it was very difficult to leave your town even if you wanted to unless you owned a horse, knew someone who did, or felt like walking. As a result of our increased connectivity, we're presented with several competing world views that we don't always agree with, but unfortunately, a lot of us Christians don't seem to be handling this the best. Pastor Jerry discusses this in this week's sermon.

This week, Pastor Jerry spoke on the genius of the Resurrection and how our mindsets can impact our lives. As he explains, the Resurrection was not a direct attack on the Enemy, but more akin to martial art forms like Judo or Aikido, where the momentum of an attack is used as an attack itself. After all, crucifixion is a pretty rough hand to be dealt, yet Jesus played it so well that the sins of humanity were forgiven. But while Jesus has freed us from all things, some people still allow themselves to be trapped by their own fears. Some people allow things like a fear of not finding love or, ironically enough, a fear of death, to keep them from truly enjoying life.

In this week's message, Pastor Jerry talks in-depth about the meaning of sin. Typically, sin has been used to simply mean "the breaking of one of God's rules." However, if you dig a bit deeper, it turns out that sin is much more self-destructive than just breaking the rules, much to the heartbreak of our Father.

Today Pastor Jerry explored the connection between truth, lies, and our trust in God, with our beliefs, mindsets and behaviors and our efforts to meet our innermost needs of security, worth, and significance. Getting free of the bondage's that cage us requires examining everything in our life through the lens of Jesus.

Pastor Jerry posed this question – How do you reconcile the evil in this world with the goodness of God? From the beginning, the strategic plan of Gods enemy was to entrap people in cages to keep us from the life God designed for us. We need to talk about what’s going on around us and how to break out of the cages that can trap us.

Pastor Galen Gingerich, Lead Pastor of New Horizons Church, McMinnville, Oregon, shared from his heart today about his Prophetic Journey. He spoke about when that prophetic word comes that you aren't quite sure what to do with, and putting it on the back burner to let it simmer a while. Seeking wisdom from Holy Spirit, praying and sharing it with others, only after you are sure the time is right. You just received an awesome word, or prophetic promise from the Lord, now what...