Tag: Val Watkins

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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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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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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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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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:14 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: When Life Is Just Not Fair
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 7:18-35
Duration: 24:14
Size: 11.0 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
When Life Is Just Not Fair
Luke 7:18-35

We run into real problems when we try to impose our definitions of fairness on God.

1. God Does Not Have To Work By Our Expectations.

Languishing in prison, John became increasingly perplexed by the reports he heard of Jesus’ ministry because it was not all what he had imagined that the Messiah would do.

2. Honest Doubt Is Not A Sin.

I don’t think that John no longer believed in Jesus, but he did have questions about the style of his ministry and the content of his message.

In John’s case his doubt was not born of willful unbelief but of doubt that was fed by physical strain and emotional turmoil.

3. The Only Valid Test of Jesus’ Message Is the Test of Truth.

The application for us today is clear, examine the evidence, if he is truly the Son of God, if he alone fulfills the prophecies of scripture, if indeed died, was buried and rose again then the evidence demands a verdict.

4. John’s Moment of Doubt Did Not Negate His Years of Ministry.

Jesus did not want the crowd to look down on John so he deliberately paid tribute to John.

Yet John’s greatness is nothing compared to those who are able to enjoy the blessing of living in the age of grace.

5. It Is Not Wise to Play With Your Eternal Destiny.

We too have ideas about how God will work. Some people are never willing to give up and allow God to be God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:53 — 1.0MB)

Sermon Audio: Even Death Is Not A Barrier
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 7:11-17
Duration: 21:53
Size: 10.0 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Even Death Is Not A Barrier
Luke 7:11-17

Death is a cruel thief when it strikes down the young.

1. Sometimes life just seems to cave in on us.

When our loved one stops breathing and the heart stops pumping, we say, “That’s it, it is finished!”

These differences illustrate that our Savior doesn’t demand that we fit into a set pattern to receive his help.

2. We serve a Lord who is moved by our needs.

But when Jesus saw her he saw not only her grief but also the social stigma she would have to bear as well.

Jesus told her not to weep because he was about to turn her tears into a testimony.

3. Our Savior is able to conquer even death.

Without even the presence of faith Jesus gave this woman back her son.

He will give our loved ones back to us and us to them, and forever we shall live together in His presence.

4. He that overcomes death deserves our worship.

May I suggest to you that a brush with death will cause us to reexamine our priorities?

Because death could not keep Jesus in the grave we can have the same confidence that the apostle Paul expressed.

Do you believe that those who believe in Him will never die If so what have you done about it?