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2020-01-26: Acts: Life In The Spirit — The Need-Meeting God

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:31 — 13.8MB)

Sermon Audio: The Need-Meeting God
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Acts 9:32-43
Duration: 28:31
Size: 13.7 MB

Acts: Life In The Spirit
The Need-Meeting God
Acts 9:32-43

God wants to reveal Himself to people by meeting the needs in their lives.

I. The Good News about Jesus Can Meet Physical Needs (Acts 9:32-34,36)
It is amazing who you might find when you are looking for needs to meet.

Sometimes there is no better way to show God’s love than to help meet someone’s need.

II. The Good News about Jesus Can Restore Life (Acts 9:36-41)
The Bible tells us that the devil came to destroy life, but Jesus came to give life.

III. The Good News about Jesus Can Change an Entire City (Acts 9:35,42)
If we believe it is possible for the good news about Jesus to change an entire city, then we must ask, “Why not our city?”

Not just anything, however; we need the power of God working in and through our lives!

The good news about Jesus is the only thing that can produce lasting change in our lives and in our community!

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2020-01-19: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Growing in Christ

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:07 — 11.2MB)

Sermon Audio: Growing in Christ
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Acts 9:20-31
Duration: 23:06
Size: 11.1 MB

Acts: Life In The Spirit
Growing in Christ
Acts 9:20-31

Every person who receives Jesus as their forgiver and leader needs to keep on growing in their faith.

I. A Growing Christian Always Seeks to Know Who Jesus Is (Acts 9:20)
Paul’s goal was to stay as close to Jesus as he possibly could.

II. A Growing Christian Embraces the Growth Process (Acts 9:22-23a)
All of the training Paul had received under Gamaliel and others was part of God’s plan to shape Paul into the person he became.

We are not all called to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, or pastor teachers. However, we are all called to be witnesses for Jesus.

III. A Growing Christian Learns How to Handle Conflict (Acts 9:23-26,29)
We may never face the intense hatred or fearful rejection that Paul faced, but we all will probably have to endure some form of opposition.

So, don’t let conflict or opposition become an offense that spreads throughout your life and into the lives of others.

IV. A Growing Christian Learns to Rely on Fellow Believers (Acts 9:25,30)
However, if we were to look more closely, we would see that Jesus used other believers in his life to minister to him and give him wise counsel.

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2020-01-12: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Arrested by Love

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:12 — 11.3MB)

Sermon Audio: Arrested by Love
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Acts 9:1-19
Duration: 23:11
Size: 11.2 MB

Acts: Life In The Spirit
Arrested by Love
Acts 9:1-19

Jesus wants to get a hold of our lives as well, and that is what I’d like to talk about today.

I. Busted!
Not only had he not been helping the God of Israel, but he had been persecuting His Messiah, Jesus.

Saul saw the light and was busted for fighting against Jesus and resisting His grace.

II. Arraigned!
So, when Jesus indicted Saul on multiple counts of Divine assault (persecuting Jesus by persecuting Christians), Saul begins to realize how far he has missed God.

III. Tried!
Until we call on the Lord, we are in the same place Saul was in: guilty of the death of Jesus!

IV. Sentenced!
Saul was not only sentenced to death, however. He is also sentenced to life in Christ’s service.

V. Restored!
The Lord breathed life into the soul of a man who had become hard and distant from God.

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2020-01-05: Acts: Life In The Spirit — Following the Spirit’s Lead

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:39 — 10.5MB)

Sermon Audio: Following the Spirit’s Lead
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Acts 8:26-40
Duration: 20:39
Size: 10.4 MB

Acts: Life In The Spirit
Following the Spirit’s Lead
Acts 8:26-40

The more we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit; the more God will use us to help others come to know Him.

I. God Wants Believers to Go and Share the Good News
Much of the book of Acts finds believers doing just that: going out and telling people that God loves them and is offering them forgiveness and eternal life.

The biggest single reason newcomers give for coming to church is that someone invited them.

II. Sometimes God Leads Us on a Need-to-Know Basis
The angel didn’t tell him why he was supposed to go.
He just told him to get ready and go.

III. We Must Prepare Ourselves to Explain
God’s Word Clearly to Others Always be ready to explain it. That means we need to know God’s word.

IV. God Draws People to Himself through Our Obedience
As His followers told others about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, people from every tribe and nation would come to know Him.

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2019-12-22: The Story Seldom Told — The Story of a Prophet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:58 — 9.0MB)

Sermon Audio: The Story of a Prophet
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 2:25-32
Duration: 17:58
Size: 9.01 MB

The Story Seldom Told
The Story of a Prophet
Luke 2:25-32

The Old Testament Prophecies have all the earmarks of a great story as they point toward the coming Messiah.

Today, we aren’t going to focus on the prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus, instead we are looking at the prophecy concerning the purpose of Jesus.

Here is the story of a man who was living in the hope of a promise.

That first Christmas happened because in God’s opinion the world should go on, and not just go on but to go on with hope.

But sometimes, God pushes aside the natural laws that he puts in place and a supernatural healing takes place.

And the question is still being asked today, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And that hope that we have is a hope based on the assurance of the word of God when we are told in I John 5:13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Jesus Offers Hope in the Face of Hopelessness
Pretty sure that this unknown lady figured that God had probably given up on her much like many of her neighbors had.

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2019-12-15: The Story Seldom Told — The Story of a Journey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:17 — 11.7MB)

Sermon Audio: The Story of a Journey
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Matthew 2:7-15
Duration: 23:17
Size: 11.6 MB

The Story Seldom Told
The Story of a Journey
Matthew 2:7-15

You would have to wonder what would ever possess a man to take his very pregnant wife on that type of journey.

Not sure that Mary and Joseph would have seen it as a fortuitous situation but it certainly meant that they were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there.

You see, when we think of the journey of Christmas we think of the part of the trip before Jesus was born, but there was another trip, and that is a Story that is seldom told.

The Holy family fled to Egypt, stayed for an indeterminable period of time and then returned to Palestine.

The journey to Egypt would have been about 40 miles, but still outside the reach of Herod and there was a certain familiarity about it.

And just when Joseph thinks that maybe things have settled down and he can finally get some sleep his dreams are interrupted by an angel, again.

And that’s probably why we have verses in the scriptures like Proverbs 3:5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Is trust, trust if we don’t act on it?

Jesus offers us grace and forgiveness and in return he asks for our love and obedience.

That could have been written about Joseph, time and time again. He had an assurance about things he could not see.

Well first of all it reminds us that we need to trust God.

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2019-12-08: The Story Seldom Told — The Story of Royalty

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:18 — 12.2MB)

Sermon Audio: The Story of Royalty
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Matthew 2:1-8
Duration: 24:18
Size: 12.1 MB

The Story Seldom Told
The Story of Royalty
Matthew 2:1-8

So, the bible never refers to the visitors as Kings or even alludes to it and the early church never identified them as kings.

So, while there were kings mentioned in the Christmas story there were only two and they didn’t come from the east.

In 47 BC he was appointed Governor of Palestine and seven years later he was appointed King by Octavian who you would know better as Caesar Augustus.

At no point, does Jesus ever stop people from calling him king.

But even Herod’s motives behind rebuilding the temple were mixed.

And so, it was that this old man who was crippled with hate and suspicion was told about the one who was the King of the Jews.

From the very beginning the birth of Jesus was defined not by what he could get but what could he give.

There is a gap between us and God that we cannot bridge on our own.

The mission of Christ was simple, he summed it up himself in Luke 19:10, For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.

If you ask people if they know who Herod is, they will usually mention the Christmas story or the Easter story.

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2019-12-01: The Story Seldom Told — The Story of a Birth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:56 — 11.1MB)

Sermon Audio: The Story of a Birth
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 1:57-66
Duration: 21:56
Size: 11.1 MB

The Story Seldom Told
The Story of a Birth
Luke 1:57-66

And in that is the entire mystery of the incarnation, Jesus 100% Man and 100% God.

And yet the story of John’s birth is not only a vital part of the story of Jesus’ birth but the story of John’s ministry is a vital part of Jesus’ ministry.

The fact that they had no children would have been a personal tragedy in a society and a culture where children were seen as a blessing from God.

And while most of us think of the birth of Jesus as the beginning of the story, the beginning of the story really goes back to the birth of John.

But to make sure that people understood, Luke the Doctor very clearly states that this couple was a righteous couple who had pleased God.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

As far as we know Zechariah went home, conveyed the message of the angel to Elizabeth.

Our model is Christ. So, let’s stop telling the world how bad their sin is and let’s start sharing how good the Father has always been.

Hundreds of people had heard John speak of the coming Messiah and there was an air of expectancy when John finally pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah.

And while it comes at the end of the story not the beginning, we discover that doing the right thing often has a price that must be paid.