Portland, Oregon – A Congregation of Faith and Love
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:26 — )
Christmas Morning Sermon Audio: Living the Christmas Story
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2
Duration: 24:26
Size: 11.1 MB
Living the Christmas Story
Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:25 — )
Sermon Audio: Christmas Originals – The Original Ornament
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Matthew 2:1-12
Duration: 29:25
Size: 13.4 MB
Christmas Originals
The Original Ornament
Matthew 2:1-12
The star I want to speak to you about from God’s Word this morning is a star more spectacular and more fascinating than any earthly star.
The Bible is to a large degree silent on the specifics of this star, as to what it was…
I. The Star Speaks of God’s Glory
This star in the sky was the Original Christmas Ornament and it speaks of God’s Glory.
All throughout the Bible we find light associated with God’s Glory.
Christians shine because God’s Glory is reflecting on them.
Is your life like that original Christmas ornament? Are you allowing God’s glory to be reflected through you?
II. The Star Speaks of God’s Guidance
What is the Guiding Light in your life?
Are you looking to the Word of God…the Bible that it might be a map by which God shines His guiding light to you…
They followed God’s guidance and they found…The Greatest Gift.
III. Their finding beyond the star was God’s Gift
And Yet…all of their gifts combined 1000 times over could not begin to compare to the marvelous gift of God, their eyes beheld as the star lead them to that place where they found “their Savior”.
He came as the gift to all of us who will receive Him.
How many kings stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:38 — 8.5MB)
Sermon Audio: Christmas Originals – The Original Missionaries
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 2:8-20
Duration: 18:38
Size: 8.52 MB
Christmas Originals
The Original Missionaries
Luke 2:8-20
There is perhaps no more of an opportune time for our doing this…than in this season in which we especially celebrate the Savior’s birth.
I. They Received A Declaration
The angels had delivered a message to the shepherds…it was the declaration of Good News.
We ought to be Christmas Missionaries in the very finest sense…taking the declaration we have heard and received and with great anticipation we should be hurrying to tell others the message.
II. The Shepherds began an activity of Decoration
It is like they were turning on beautiful Christmas lights with each person that the shepherds told.
There is nothing that beautifies the world more than God’s marvelous love made known to all people throughout your community and then throughout the earth.
III. It made a difference in the shepherds lives Dedication
Sure these shepherds returned to their fields but they returned different. They returned changed.
Their lives were changed by God and theirs’ was a dedication to praising and glorifying God with their lives.
I want to encourage you in this season of special opportunity to take the Declaration you have received and to go out and get involved with Decoration spreading the Good News to others…and never grow weary in your changed life of Dedication to praising and glorifying God.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:01 — )
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Stewardship
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 24:01
Size: 11.0 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Stewardship
I think that what I present today will be more broadly biblical than just a talk on tithing.
What is a Steward?
There are some notable stewards in the Bible, Joseph being the most notable.
A good steward always remembers that they are a servant of the master or the king, and does all that he or she does with an eye to what is best for their master’s household or kingdom.
Our Stewardship Of the Land Psalm 24:1
An understanding that the land belongs to the Lord has many implications.
As stewards of the land, we are supposed to look after our own needs, but we are to do it in a way that allows others to look after their needs.
Our Stewardship of Our Bodies 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
How does God want you to use the body that he has put you in charge of?
Our Stewardship of Money & Possessions 2 Corinthians 9:7
If we belong to God, then all that we have belongs to God.
I think that God is more concerned with your gracious relationship with your spouse than money coming into the plates.
Our Stewardship of the Gospel & the Grace & Gifts of God 1 Peter 4:10
If you are a Christian, you have Gifts given to the church through you.
How to Steward
Know God
If there is anything that we know about our God is that he is extremely generous, one could even say extravagant.
We are to steward the belonging of God in the same way that he has graced us with them
Gratitude
When we foster an attitude of gratitude for all that God has given us, including our position as stewards, it keeps us from imagining that creation and money is ours for doing as we please.
Practices
Change your Mind
Change your Bankbook
Change your Stomach
Change your footprint
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:53 — )
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Worship
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Duration: 26:53
Size: 12.3 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Worship
Isaiah 6:1-8
In worship we catch a vision of God, when we join with other Christians to lift our voice in praise.
In worship we come to know God in ways that we can’t just reading about him.
In worship we catch a vision of ourselves.
In worship we catch a vision of God’s grace.
In worship we catch a vision of our call.
The Practice of Worship
Come
It amazes me that Christians not coming to church and trying to live in the Kingdom of God without the Community of God surrounding them is not a new phenomena!
Participate
We don’t come to be a spectator to a performance of worship, we come to worship God!
Bring something to the table:
Find God
You could sit there and criticize the whole gathering, or you could trust in Jesus’ promise and Stop, Listen, Find God, and worship him.
A Life of Worship
Let the discipline of worship flow into your everyday life – learn to worship God by whatever you are doing.
Preparation for corporate worship
There are many reasons to worship – the most important being that God deserves it and we are created for it!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:05 — )
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Integrity of Heart
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 29:05
Size: 13.3 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Integrity of Heart
“Integrity is what you do when nobody is around or watching.”
1. Identify the Problems
Thought Life – 1 John 2:15-17
Sexual Immorality – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5,7
Attitude – Jeremiah 9:23-24
Words – Ephesians 4:29
Priorities – 2 Corinthians 4:18
2. Get Help!
When we keep our sins to our self, it festers and gets worse.
Hear me, you cannot do it alone!
3. Realize, it takes time!
Pursuing the Life of Integrity means always being open to the refining process God is pushing us towards.
Bottom-line: if it interferes with our purity before God, it’s going to take time to fully overcome with God’s help and our constant desire for purity.
4. Never Underestimate!
If you know you struggle in an area don’t put yourself in situations where you’ll be tempted.
We must be considerate that our own actions do not prevent someone from realizing salvation or continuing to live as a new creation.
5. The job is never done!
We will always be a work in progress, until we enter into heaven!
Can people tell what you stand for by the way you act—not what you say, but how you live your life?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:33 — 14.4MB)
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Service
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 31:33
Size: 14.4 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Service
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:29 — )
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Silence
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: James 3:2-12
Duration: 29:29
Size: 13.5 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Silence
James 3:2-12
Have you ever opened your mouth without thinking and said something you regretted later.
The tongue is the most powerful part of the body with the power to curse & the power to bless, the power to start fires and the power to put them out.
Silence of the Mouth
One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless.
By observing a silence in our lives on a regular basis, we are training our tongue so that we learn to control it rather than have it control us.
In our personal relationships, our words often express a lack of faith, a lack of trust – if we do not trust some one to drive properly; we take to back seat driving.
We need to find ways of practicing silence in our everyday life.
Silence of the Ears
Even if we cannot keep a time of silence ourselves, we can learn to live without the constant noise of background music, TV or radio.
Interior Silence
Keeping silent on the outside, either through not talking, or shutting the noise off, is easy compared with learning inner silence.
As Eli teaches the young boy Samuel, we have to learn to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening“, and then actually listen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:24 — )
Sermon: Beyond the Walls
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: I John 3:16-18
Duration: 47:24
Size: 21.7 MB
Beyond the Walls
I John 3:16-18
I hope that you have a desire to be a caring person and someone that lives out the same kind of love that Jesus Christ modeled for us.
Step 1: LOVE (verse 16)
Love, for the Christian is a love that centers on Jesus Christ. He is our model. He is our standard.
Love is “laying aside” yourself on purpose and putting someone else first.
Our first step towards caring for others must be that we have the same kind of love that Christ showed… which lays aside ourselves and puts another first.
Step 2: PITY (verse 17)
Pity is feeling deeply for someone in the bowels of who you are… to your core.
It begins with love like Christ, but it must be more than that because Jesus was more than that.
Our second step towards caring for others is that you have to feel love and concern and compassion about others to the very core of your being and allow it to affect your heart.
Step 3: ACTIONS (verse 18)
As we have talked about, caring for others begins with love that lays aside self and feeling what the other person is going through… but action must follow.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:37 — )
Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Submission
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Ephesians 5:15-21
Duration: 28:37
Size: 13.1 MB
Spiritual Disciplines
Submission
Ephesians 5:15-21
Christian Submission…
Out of all the spiritual disciplines, I think that submission is the most counter cultural.
The Submission that Paul is calling us to is a mutual submission – not one where there is one person in submission, and another in authority, but that we would submit to each other.
It is not the abdication of responsibility or authority so we get no where and no decisions get made because we are so worried about stepping on each others toes.
Submission is – a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden. “put others first.”
The most amazing picture I have of submitting from a place of strength is that of Jesus standing before Pilate.
Laying down one’s life is not just about dying it is about giving up what we hold dear because our friend is even more dear to us.
Our Submission to each other is an outworking of the Spirit’s filling of our lives.
Areas to Submit…
I ask for the grace to let myself be shaped by my loving Creator.
I believe that God gives us families to practice love on, because if we can love them, we can love anybody.
If you look around you, these are all the “one-another’s” that God calls you to love and serve, to lift up and honor above yourself.
The Spiritual Disciple of Submission is as about as counter-cultural as you can get – you may feel it within you as you bristle at the very word “submission”.
Christian Submission…
Areas to Submit…