Tag: Sermon

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Sermon Audio: Why Follow Jesus?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 8:34-9:13
Duration: 22:04
Size: 11.6 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
Why Follow Jesus?
Mark 8:34-9:13

Accomplishing God’s tasks with man’s methods never works – so Jesus rebuked Peter.

He wasn’t saying that everyone must die on a cross, but that each of us must set aside our ways and take on a commitment to follow the Lord no matter what.

What you think of Him matters. What you think of His words matters. If you reject them, you reject Him and when He comes back as king he will reject you.

It means a change from within, and not just in appearance but a complete transformation of the entire being.

Imagine what you would have felt if you woke up from a deep sleep to three glorious men standing there?

Suddenly all the glory was gone, and it was just Jesus, now in human form, standing there. What a mind-blowing experience.

But all that didn’t mean the death of Jesus was no longer necessary. So Jesus calls them to think about that aspect of the Messiah.

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Sermon Audio: Incomplete Vision
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 8:22-8:33
Duration: 19:39
Size: 10.7 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
Incomplete Vision
Mark 8:22-8:33

It’s a great bridge from the spiritually blind disciples to the physically blind man.

Though Jesus had compassion on the physical needs of people, He never lost sight of His ultimate mission – to heal souls through the cross. To Seek and Save the lost.

Peter declares Jesus is the Messiah – but when we look at him later, after the resurrection, he doesn’t seem to get it.

We are always interested in what gets us what we want now – but Jesus knew the real mission was much bigger than that.

Anything that keeps Jesus from the suffering cross would keep mankind forever in bondage.

So let Him touch the eyes of your heart and give you clear sight into the gift He offers – all you have to lose is your life – and all there is to gain is life eternal!

“Who do you say that I am?”

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Sermon Audio: What Is Faith?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 7:24-8:21
Duration: 21:06
Size: 11.8 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
What Is Faith?
Mark 7:24-8:21

Jesus and His men went, presumably, to a Jewish home in order to get some time to rest away from crowds. But alas, such was not the case.

Jesus came first to the Jews but always intended for the gospel to go out from there to the entire world.

The deaf-mute could not ask Jesus for healing so his friends brought him and begged the Lord to touch him.

Often deaf people can speak, but because they don’t hear the sound their speech is not clear.

It’s possible that this miracle took place very near where Jesus freed the man with the demons, on the southeastern shore of the lake.

Mark calls their demand for a “sign” a test – such as where Satan tempted Jesus to perform at his will – so too the Pharisees want to control Jesus.

His point is that introducing self-righteousness or political expediency is dangerous when it comes to relating to God.

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Sermon Audio: Battling the Broken Mind
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 6:53-7:23
Duration: 21:07
Size: 11.7 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
Battling the Broken Mind
Mark 6:53-7:23

Such was the case for the Pharisees. In their zeal to serve God they ended up serving themselves because they lacked an objective source of truth.

It is the act of reaching out in trust and reliance on Jesus that heals not some piece of cloth or ritual.

Over the years after the Babylonian captivity, the religious leaders had added hundreds of oral traditions that they considered as binding as the Law.

They are not attacking Jesus personally, but by accusing His disciples it is like they are saying “If you were really a holy man and a rabbi, wouldn’t you have taught your disciples to obey the traditions?”

The problem the Pharisees had was they had replaced God’s Word with their own words as the authority over their lives and conduct.

It was not the diet that goes in, but the character that already lives in a person and comes out that matters.

The moment we place our own mind on the same or greater plain as God’s over what is good–we begin to layer over the top of God’s character like varnish on a piece of wood.

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Sermon Audio: The Compassion and Provision of Jesus
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 6:30-52
Duration: 24:37
Size: 13.1 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
The Compassion and Provision of Jesus
Mark 6:30-52

I think the portion of Mark 6 we are going to look at today will be a comfort and a challenge to you as we see the Lord’s compassion with our plight and His provision for everything we need to serve Him.

The trip itself had been exhausting but now there were so many people crowding around they couldn’t even eat.

It was actually more important for them to listen to the life-giving words of God than in getting food for their bellies.

He will take what they have and multiply it, just as Jesus takes what we offer and infuses it with Holy Spirit reality to multiply it beyond our wildest dreams.

Even as Jesus desires for us to rejuvenate and not burn out from service, He also cares about our physical needs.

It is also good to pray after success, to set the mind to Who actually did the work and what it was for.

Sometimes God does things in our lives that frighten or trouble us – urging us to move deeper in our relationship or trust Him with an impossible circumstance.

Don’t be afraid of anything in this age because Jesus has conquered it. And don’t be afraid of the next age, though you don’t really understand the Lord you follow.

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Sermon Audio: What Do You Really Think of Jesus?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 6:1-29
Duration: 20:23
Size: 10.6 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
What Do You Really Think of Jesus?
Mark 6:1-29

After a string of incredible miracles where even the dead were raised, with crowds were so thick that Jesus was barely able to move, and after such great victories – surely the people of his own town would now see those words from Isaiah in a different light.

Sometimes it is the church that stands between people and understanding who Jesus is. All they can see are the imperfect people in the church and they can’t see how Jesus could be anything special.

How odd it must have been for Jesus, knowing that He held life and was giving it away freely.

When we share the gospel, we are not responsible for the outcome, but for merely supplying the message in the best way we can.

When word got to Herod he bought into number three – perhaps reacting out of guilt over having arrested and then murdered John.

Herod was swayed easily by others and Herodias uses this to her advantage when Herod gave himself a birthday party.

I think this is no accident. Mark is trying to communicate that sharing the good news of Jesus Christ can be hazardous to your health.

Don’t dismiss Jesus as nothing more than a man. You will miss an opportunity to know the most wonderful man ever born.

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Sermon Audio: Do You Trust Me No Matter What?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 5:21-43
Duration: 19:20
Size: 8.84 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
Do You Trust Me No Matter What?
Mark 5:21-43

But in times of extreme personal crisis, your position in society, the possible outcomes of siding with Jesus – they all go out the window.

So, with heavy hearts they set off to tell Jairus that not only was his daughter dead, but that he had not been there to say goodbye.

The easier thing here would be to give into the fear of death and the grief of loss, to abandon hope because death is the final end – no one comes back from the dead.

Their laughing causes them to miss the greatest miracle Jesus would perform – raising the dead.

Jesus will do the same thing to us who fall “asleep” in death as a believer. We will “wake up” and be in His presence.

God is never rushed (Jesus paused to care for the woman) and God is never late. Time isn’t important to God (though it is to us) but timing is important.

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Sermon Audio: How Much Do You Long For Jesus?
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 5:21-34
Duration: 19:09
Size: 8.77 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
How Much Do You Long For Jesus?
Mark 5:21-34

Today we read about the beginning of Jesus’ encounter with Jairus, and the woman with the flow of blood.

Sometimes it takes a real crisis to bring into focus what’s important, and when brought to an end in himself, Jairus doesn’t care about public opinion or his own doubts, he wants help and knows Jesus can help heal the sick.

She has something wrong inside of her, it is doing things to her that she doesn’t want, she cannot cure it herself, and it makes her unclean, cutting her off from fellowship.

Whether He already knew who the woman was or not, the point is that He wanted her to admit to the fact that she had reached out in faith to Him.

We too have been afflicted with brokenness – an infirmity that separates us from God, the source of which cannot be seen on the outside but we do see the result.

You can’t become a Christian by hanging out with Christians or at church any more than going into a hospital makes you well.

There are plenty of thieves of robbers out there in this age. But there is only one Good Shepherd. Do you hear His voice calling you?

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Sermon Audio: The Stronger Man
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Mark 5:1-20
Duration: 22:43
Size: 10.4 MB

Jesus: The Ultimate Action Hero
The Stronger Man
Mark 5:1-20

It is the ultimate mission of our ultimate action hero to spring us all from the biggest prison of all: the prison of sin that keeps us away from God.

The world paints this picture of happiness through abandon and an “if it feels good, do it” mentality. The reality behind that mask is that Satan only wants to “steal, kill, and destroy” you.

Satan and his demons have nothing in common with Jesus because in their rebellion they left all hope of ever being redeemed.

They know their fate; they are merely trying to do as much damage as possible until they are arrested, and the sentence is carried out.

For all of the enemy’s bluster, He too must submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Whatever the case, they missed the chance of an eternity to have Jesus heal and provide hope.

So the man went away and immediately began proclaiming Jesus in the Decapolis, which bore fruit as many followed Him from that region.

The common theme we are going to see in these three incidents of Jesus setting people free is that they bowed before Him. He is Lord.

Will you let Him be Lord in all of your life?