Tag: Val Watkins

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:02 — 12.4MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 2:1-20

Jesus Is Everything to Me Christmas
The Perfect Gift
Luke 2:1-20

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:38 — 13.5MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Hebrews 2:14-17

Jesus Is Everything to Me Christmas
Born to Be a Priest
Hebrews 2:14-17

Now the past 4 weeks we’ve focusing on Jesus having been born to be our Mediator, our Sanctifier, our Savior and our Redeemer. And all of those were tied into…Christ’s death on the cross.

God is holy and righteous, and (because of our sins) we’re not! And that created a problem.

But, the blood (placed on the Mercy Seat) covered the sins of the people for the year, so that Israel could continue to be in God’s presence.

His blood has cleansed our hearts. And now, when you and I pray to God we enter into God’s very throne room.

But Jesus became our High Priest so He could destroy death. Jesus came so we wouldn’t have to be afraid of death anymore.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:01 — 17.2MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: I Corinthians 6:9-11

Jesus Is Everything to Me Christmas
The Gift of the Sanctifying Savior
I Corinthians 6:9-11

Sanctification means–we’ve been “set apart.”
We’ve been set apart from the world to protect us from damage.

You see, God loves you…but He hates sin.

God declares: you and I had all sinned. No one is righteous before God.

So, sanctification is the process Jesus set in motion when we became Christians.

They’re more than happy to let God do what He does, just as long as they don’t have to do anything about it themselves.

And even though we may believe “we’re adults” and can handle the smell of worldly things in our lives that smell will still remain.

Like the shepherds and the wisemen, we need to leave the world behind and come bow before Jesus.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:15 — 18.7MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 2:8-12

Jesus Is Everything to Me Christmas
The Sign of a Savior in Swaddling Clothes
Luke 2:8-12

There was something about the Savior being wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger that catches our attention and gives us a clear message of what God wants us to know about Jesus.

Someone once noted: “If you don’t follow Jesus, you’re not going to go where He went.”

If, instead of being born as a baby in a manger, God had stepped down out of heaven with all His majesty and power, and appeared to them as the Almighty God, they’d have scattered in fear.

He came as a gentle and fragile child. As God in the flesh so that we’d know He meant us no harm.

He became mortal so that He could die on the cross and destroy the power of death.

For those who first heard these stories and knew the culture, this would sound eerily like the tomb in which he was placed in death!

But here’s the deal…you don’t have to know all that in order for Jesus to change your life.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:28 — 15.4MB)

Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: I Timothy 2:5-6, Hebrews 9:15, Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jesus Is Everything to Me Christmas
The Gift of the Mediator
I Timothy 2:5-6, Hebrews 9:15, Jeremiah 31:31-34

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at the gifts that were wrapped up in Jesus.

Jesus was the Middleman, and He had come to make sure that we obtained that New agreement from God.

He also proved who He was by His miracles, His powerful teachings, and by rising from the dead.

Usually there’s been some kind of disagreement, or someone’s been wronged, like in our relationship with God. There’s a rift (a chasm) between God and us…and we created it.

And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus, gave His all on the cross to pay for our sins.