2014-11-30: Advent 2014 – The Reason for the Season

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!

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

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?

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

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?

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

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.

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

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?”