Category: 2024 Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:06 — 15.2MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Philippians 4:4-9

Surrender
Surrender Your Thoughts
Philippians 4:4-9

But when that is our philosophy, it means that we really haven’t embraced Jesus as Lord, we’re simply using him as a fire escape from Hell.

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. That is an interesting concept. Taking our thoughts captive, so they will be obedient to Christ.

What Jesus was warning us about in the Sermon on the Mount wasn’t the actions but the beginning of the actions. The thought or thoughts behind the action.

Willie Nelson said,
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

You see the warning isn’t simply that negative thoughts will make us negative, the warning is that letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.

So, Paul goes on to say, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

So, to say, in order to control your thought life, you just need to stop thinking about the things we shouldn’t be thinking about. That’s simple but it’s not easy.

It starts with you, and it depends on God, but ultimately God does His part and expects us to do our part.

Are you willing to make that decision? The decision to surrender your thoughts to God? The decision to focus on the things of God?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:13 — 18.8MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:31-32

Surrender
Surrender Your Bitterness
Ephesians 4:31-32

However, the reality is that we will all get angry. As long as we are people and we live with people anger is inevitable.

But the question has to be: How do we deal with our anger? How do we keep our anger from making us bitter?

When you claim your anger as your emotion then you own it, and you are in control.
—
We Need to Deal With It
Take the time to process it, cool down, and start by talking to the person.

If you can’t do anything about it, perhaps you need to accept it and turn it over to God rather than letting it destroy you.

You commit the situation and person to God for His judgment and in so doing are refusing to let it eat away at your own well-being.

It was Groucho Marx who said, “Speak when you’re angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”

Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector; Love Them.

I would say that start from the top and work your way down. Name it, claim it, identify it, and deal with it. And in dealing with it you need to learn to forgive yourself.

Take your anger to God. It won’t hurt his feelings, it won’t even surprise him, he knows how you are feeling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:24 — 14.3MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:31, Ephesians 4:26-27

Surrender
Surrender Your Anger
Ephesians 4:31, Ephesians 4:26-27

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

Maybe we need to discover Why We Get Angry
Sometimes we think, and we are taught that all anger is sinful and is a result of man’s fall and original sin.

And it is from these two characteristics of God, his love and his holiness that we see his anger displayed, when justice and righteousness are neglected or rejected.

Now whether or not you were done wrong isn’t the question. The question is whether you perceived that you were done wrong.

And the bible acknowledges that, what it challenges us on is not our anger, but how we respond in our anger.

But I think Jesus was upset over the fact that those who were supposed to be leading people to God were taking advantage of them.

If you find yourself reacting immediately in anger, you are probably in the wrong. You are letting your anger control you instead of controlling your anger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”

As Christians we need to go back time and time again to the multitude of scriptures that remind us that we are supposed to forgive others just as God forgave us.

But understand, this you will control your anger, or your anger will control you.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:26 — 16.8MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: James 3:3-6, Ephesians 4:29

Surrender
Surrender Your Speech
James 3:3-6, Ephesians 4:29

And then for the next ten verses, James spells out the danger of an uncontrolled tongue and gives us three very vivid metaphors for the tongue.

Not the ship, not the rudder, not even the strong winds determine the course, the pilot does.

In the same way, never underestimate the long-term effect of your words on somebody’s life.

So, what does it look like when we’ve surrendered our speech to God?

You understand that who you are as a believer will be judged by the words you speak, and who you are as a person will be judged by the words you speak.

People’s perceptions of you, are often based on the words you use.

Let’s make a conscious effort to be positive in our comments to one another. To speak up more in praise and encouragement.

When you speak the truth, do you do it in love? And I don’t just mean your intentions, I mean your words and your tone when you speak those words.

Today your speech has to include what you write and what you post online.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:54 — 19.8MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Galatians 6:4-10

Surrender
Never Surrender
Galatians 6:4-10

The word I’m talking about, you have probably figured out already from the graphics etc. is the word surrender.

There is a condition that we find at the end of the statement that says, “If we don’t give up“.

Never Surrender Your Dreams
It was John Wooden who wrote, “Don’t give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.”

Never Surrender Your Convictions
There was no Christian heritage, no grandparents praying for their grand kids.

And the temptation is there to embrace the values of the world, to copy how the world thinks and what the world believes.

And it only takes the light from one candle to reveal how dark the darkness is.

Never Surrender Your Relationship With Christ
Having people who have never experienced God’s grace, reject it, that grieves me. But the reality is that has always happened.

And there would be those who say that if someone could walk away from Christ it was because they had never really been a Christian. Really?