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2014-12-21: Advent 2014 – Joy To The World

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:31 — 8.5MB)

Sermon Audio: Joy To The World
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 2:8-11, Psalm 98
Duration: 26:31
Size: 12.1 MB

Advent 2014 – Joy To The World
Luke 2:8-11, Psalm 98

If there is a single word that describes what Christmas is all about, it’s the little word joy.

Where does Christmas joy come from?

I. The Prophecy of His Coming Micah 5:2
Seven hundred years earlier the Lord had spoken through the prophet Micah and declared that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

The theologians knew the truth but wouldn’t act on it; the shepherds knew very little but what they knew, they believed and immediately acted upon.

II. The Reality of His Coming
The first is that there were no miracles associated with the physical birth of Jesus Christ.

Second, it’s important to remind ourselves that the phrase “this day” means that it really happened.

Everything about the story is true, including the central truth that there really was a baby born in Bethlehem who really was the Son of God.

III. The Result of His Coming

That’s why Christ came—to be a Savior for everyone who will turn to him.

This is the heart of Christmas. God loved us enough to send his only begotten Son.

IV. The Purpose of His Coming
Pause for a moment and consider who was speaking and who was being addressed.

Our Lord came for the forgotten people of the earth and most of the time they are the ones who receive him with the greatest joy.

He Came For You
You can never be saved until you say, “Christ came for me. He died for me. He rose from the dead for me.”

Joy the world, the Lord is come.

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2014-12-07: Advent 2014 – O Come All Ye Faithful

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:20 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: O Come All Ye Faithful
Speaker: Pastor John Pettigrew
Duration: 18:20
Size: 8.39 MB

Advent 2014 – O Come All Ye Faithful

  1. Jesus called the weary and burdened. Matthew 11:28
  2. Jesus also called the sinners. Matthew 9:12-13
    God wants us to know that we can become a new person. II Corinthians 5:17
  3. Jesus helps us to become more faithful. Romans 10:17, Isaiah 43:2-3
  4. Jesus helps us to become more joyful. Galatians 5:22
    Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Jesus.
  5. Jesus helps us to become more triumphant. Luke 2:10-11
    But what we fail to realize is that the living God is the greatest one we could ever have watching our back. Isaiah 9:6-7
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2014-11-30: Advent 2014 – The Reason for the Season

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:54 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: The Reason for the Season
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Isaiah 7:14, Luke 5:32
Duration: 18:54
Size: 8.65 MB

Advent 2014 – The Reason for the Season
Isaiah 7:14, Luke 5:32

We decide every Christmas Season what The Reason for the Season means for us.

1. Jesus Is The Reason for the Season

Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Luke 5:32 (NIV) I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

2. You Are The Reason for the Season!

John 10:10 (NIV) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

3. The Reason for the Season!

Hebrews 12:2 (KJV) looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He is the Reason for the Season so I could be The Reason for the Season!

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2014-11-23: How Can We Thank God Enough?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:04 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: How Can We Thank God Enough?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: I Thessalonians 3:9-13
Duration: 20:04
Size: 9.18 MB

How Can We Thank God Enough?
I Thessalonians 3:9-13

Thanksgiving is a funny sort of holiday; somehow relaxing and tiring at the same time.

When we really pause to think about all that God has done for us, how can we thank God enough?

Thanksgiving is about more than family gatherings and cranberry sauce; it’s about recognizing and proclaiming what our Savior has done for us!

A great part of thanking God enough is sharing the Good News of God’s grace and love with all the people around us.

God has been so good to us, and God loves us so much, and if we really want to thank God, we just can’t keep the wonderful news inside us!

How can we thank God enough?

  • We thank God by living as God would have us to live.
  • We thank God by serving others in the name of Christ.
  • We thank God by sharing the message of God’s great love.
  • We thank God by preparing our hearts and seeking to draw nearer to God.
  • We thank God by anticipating with great joy that day when we will celebrate “Emmanuel, God with Us.”

What are you thankful for?

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2014-11-16: Luke-The Investigative Gospel – Are You Related To Jesus?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:41 — 9.9MB)

Sermon Audio: Are You Related To Jesus?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 8:19-21
Duration: 21:41
Size: 9.92 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Are You Related To Jesus?
Luke 8:19-21

In order to understand these three verses you have to take them in light of the entire chapter of Luke 8.

If you put Luke and Mark’s accounts together you don’t see a contradiction simply their twist on the account: Hearing God’s word and putting it into practice is God’s will!

Being baptized or being related to a leader in a church is all good but if we are not hearing God’s word and putting it into practice we are simply standing outside to see Jesus.

God did not leave us in the dark about how to come to him. It”s found in the Bible.

We can read, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and if we continue to hold a grudge with someone, the word has not gotten a hold of us.

I realize that for some of you, reading the Bible is new. You might be intimidated; you don’t know where to start.

Is there a…

Sin to confess
Promise to claim
Attitude to change
Command to obey
Example to follow
Prayer to pray
Error to avoid
Truth to believe
Something to thank God for?

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2014-11-09: Luke-The Investigative Gospel – The Parable Of The Lamp

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:50 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: The Parable Of The Lamp
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 8:16-18
Duration: 18:50
Size: 8.62 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
The Parable Of The Lamp
Luke 8:16-18

Jesus continued teaching how his true followers respond to the word of God. He gave his disciples another parable, the one we call The Parable of the Lamp.

Does God’s word go in one ear and out the other? Or do we hear God’s word in such a way that we really obey it?

It would be completely foolish to light a lamp and then cover it so that it could not light the room.

It seems that the emphasis in Luke’s Gospel is Jesus’ own teaching, and in particular how it is received.

When you hear the message of the gospel, the message of God’s word, you must hear it responsively.

We are to reveal those things and confess those things to God, knowing that if we don’t, that God will himself expose us.

Every time you hear the message of the gospel and resist it, you make it easier to resist the next time.

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2014-11-02: Luke-The Investigative Gospel – Are You Ready To Listen?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:53 — 10.5MB)

Sermon Audio: Are You Ready To Listen?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 8:1-15
Duration: 22:53
Size: 10.4 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Are You Ready To Listen?
Luke 8:1-15

What does concern me is that number of people who sit in a pew each week with their bodies awake but their souls asleep.

Some people today that sit in church around this country are gospel hardened, because they have heard the truth so many times while doing nothing at all about it.

In this story four different responses are given, along with four different causes and having four distinct results.

1. The Hard Unreceptive Heart

Some hearts are so callused as to be completely closed to the message of the Gospel.

2. The Shallow Superficial Heart

The problem with the shallow superficial heart is that it always ready to follow whatever seems to offer the greatest reward.

Those with a shallow superficial experience when the hard times come they are immediately offended. In other words, they quit.

3. The Busy Crowded Heart

The thorns, Jesus explained represented life’s worries, riches and pleasures.

4. The Receptive Productive Heart

We have a responsibility to actively seek the Lord and to do all we can to avoid those things that cause the word to be unfruitful in our lives, then and only then will we be productive for the Kingdom of God.

The condition of our heart determines whether we receive the word.

“What is the condition of your heart today?”

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2014-10-26: Luke-The Investigative Gospel – A Sacrificial Faith

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:56 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: A Sacrificial Faith
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 7:36-50
Duration: 25:56
Size: 11.8 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
A Sacrificial Faith
Luke 7:36-50

Wordless worship now there is a thought. But her worship was so profound that Jesus uses her as an example to a very proud religious leader.

Her desire is to find Jesus and when her eyes finally rest on Him, the other guest fade into a mist of tears; it suddenly doesn’t matter what these respectable people think about her.

What she did she did remarkably well she worshiped. This woman’s worship was at great personal cost.

Because Simons logic was based on false assumptions it leads him to false conclusions.

There are sinners who know they are sinners and there are sinners who do not know that they are sinners.

1. Just like the two men in the story every one is spiritually in debt.

Some people that we would not touch with a ten foot pole, if they truly met Christ, would put us to shame in their displays of love and devotion to Jesus.

2. Just like the characters in the story we can never repay the debt.

Forgiveness always cost something. When God said, “I will forgive you.” It cost the life of his only son Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

3. Those who come to Jesus He will not turn away.

What the woman does for Jesus though was not mere social niceties; they were acts of repentance and worship.

4. Those who come to Jesus in repentance and faith will be forgiven.

To love because you are forgiven is a natural response to such an undeserved action.

The woman believed that if she came to Jesus as a repentant sinner, that Jesus would not send her away, He could and would save her.