Valley Life Church

On Sunday, March 13, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continues our series on Final Lessons on the Way to the Cross. This week we are encouraged to abide in Christ from John 15:5-8. Pastor Stuart explores the relationally of abiding in Christ through trust, prayer, bearing fruit, and glorifying God.

John 15:5-8 (NASB)

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

http://bit.ly/John15_5-8NASB1995

On Sunday, March 6, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continues last week’s message on Sabbath rest, focusing on the resulting peace from taking time to be with the Lord and family. This Sunday we are encouraged to examine our relationship to peace. What steals it? What influence does the world’s peace have on us? What steps do we need to take to reestablish Jesus’ peace in our lives?

John 14:25-27 (NIV)

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

https://bit.ly/John14_25-27NIV

On Sunday, February 27, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continues our series in the Gospel of Luke, encouraging us to set aside the Sabbath for relationships, pausing, and building trust with the Lord and those closest to us.

Luke 6:1-5 (NIV)

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

http://bit.ly/Luke6_1-5NIV

On Sunday, February 20, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continues our series in Luke 5, encouraging us to explore habits that lead to better relationships, realizing that some of our old ways of relating need to be retired, because they are not useful any longer. The Lord also uses relationships to highlight areas of growth and reveal new things God wants to develop in us.

Luke 5:33-39 (NIV)

They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

https://bit.ly/Luke5_33-39NIV

On Sunday, February 13, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continues our series in Luke 5, reminding us that Jesus sees us and calls us to follow him. The reason he came was to bring healing to the sick and a new life for those who are lost.

Luke 5:27-32 (NIV)

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

http://bit.ly/Luke5_27-32NIV

On Sunday, February 6, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart continued the story of Jesus’ healing of the paralytic man, focusing on forgiveness. Jesus finds himself in a conflict over his statement about forgiveness and takes the opportunity to declare his authority as the Son of Man with the proof of healing along with forgiving the paralyzed man. Jesus offers himself to us as the one who forgives, heals, and is our example to do the same in our world today.

Luke 5:20-26 (NIV)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

http://bit.ly/Luke5_20-26NIV

On Sunday, January 30, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live and Zoom. Pastor Stuart highlighted the faith of a paralyzed man’s friends. They heard the news about Jesus, came together, and stepped out in faith by placing their friend in front of Jesus to be healed. Pastor Stuart shared that today we can join our faith to the faith of our family and friends and then step out together in the way that the Lord is leading us, trusting that the Lord will meet us there and carry us through.

Luke 5:17-20 (NIV)

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

http://bit.ly/Luke5_17-20NIV

On Sunday, January 23, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live and Zoom. Pastor Stuart shared an encouragement to spend regular time with the Lord. He used Jesus’ example or withdrawing often, reducing distractions, and creating a rhythm of intimacy.

Luke 5:15-16 (NIV)

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

http://bit.ly/Luke5_15-16NIV

On Sunday, January 16, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live and Zoom. Pastor Stuart explored three kingdom lessons regarding compassion. 1) Recognize the Savior is here and is our source of compassion. 2) The leper’s desperation is a model for us to keep an open heart to come to Jesus as our Savior and Healer. 3) Compassion must lead when we desire to help others who are hurting.

Luke 5:12-15 (NIV)

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

http://bit.ly/Luke5_12-15NIV

On Sunday, January 9, 2022, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message in person and online via YouTube Live and Zoom. Pastor Stuart led us in an exercise to evaluate what we feel Jesus is calling us to this year. We looked at Jesus calling the disciples in Luke 5:1-11, NIV. To make the task more manageable, we looked at God’s calling in incremental stages.

• The little asks

• The unusual tasks

• A courageous calling

Luke 5:1-11 (NIV)

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

http://bit.ly/Luke5_1-11NIV