Archive for September 2007

Friendship God’s Way

September 30, 2007 by admin.

Play now Friendship God’ s Way, 09-30-2007, Rev. Jim Hernandes

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FROM PASTOR MARK, 09-30-2007

September 30, 2007 by admin.

Many people spend their whole life frantically piling up money and property. As Americans we “want it all” right now. Somehow, we have this ability to suppress the truth that “we all die.” God never intended for us to set our hearts on the stuff of this earth which is passing away. Just before His death, Daniel was told by God, “You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (Daniel 12:13). Imagine, God has prepared an inheritance just for you! Live faithfully in this world with an eye to your true riches ahead!

Pastor Mark Boucher

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Scattered

September 23, 2007 by PastorMark.

Play now#288, Scattered, Sunday 09-23-2007, Pastor Mark Boucher

Text: Acts 8:1-8
Theme: Everything depends upon what you do with what you have been given.

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Some say, “I would like to have lived in the first century.”
    1. To have seen Jesus, the disciples.
    2. To have witnessed the day of Pentecost, the growth, the miracles.
  2. There’s more to this “picture” of the first century.
    1. Stephen had been killed.
    2. Saul had risen up like a wild animal.
    3. The church was scattered.
    4. What if Acts had ended at 8:3?
    5. Those in relationship with God discover a dynamic truth …
    6. “For the believer in Jesus, adversity opens the door to opportunity.”
    7. Adversity, persecution was not the end, but can be a new beginning.
    8. Everything depends on what you do with what you have been given.
  3. Those who were scattered, in turn scattered the Gospel.
    1. Scattered (v 1 & 4) speaks of seed throwing.
  4. Acts 1:8, Jesus prophesied the growth of His Kingdom. (From Jerusalem, to Judia, Samaria, world)
    1. It would have been comfortable to stay.
    2. Jesus allowed persecution, the believers handled it well

The example of the early believers helps us to know what to do and not to do with the seed.

  1. We must not allow ourselves to live by excuses.
    1. What are some excuses the early believers could have used?
    2. “I have too many problems to share the Gospel.”
    3. “We just got kicked out of Jerusalem. We’re homeless and jobless.”
    4. “People won’t listen to me because my life isn’t perfect.”
  2. The truth is:
    1. Every person has “problems” and challenges in life.
    2. Our witness involves trusting God in the problem.
    3. The truth is our problems can result in great glory to God.
    4. “I don’t know enough about the Gospel and theology.”
    5. “We’re just new Christians, not apostles.”
  3. The truth is:
    1. As a new believer, you have the greatest opportunity.
    2. You will never know all the answers.
    3. You have Christ’s holy Spirit in you.
    4. “I don’t have many Christians around me.”
    5. We must live by our faith, not our excuses.
    6. “Just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:17
    7. What does a person of faith do?
    8. You share what you have.
  4. “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
    1. Acts 8:4
    2. Preaching is not up front in your face.
    3. Preaching is sharing the good news.
    4. Be ready to give it away.
    5. “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15
    6. Pray for open doors.
    7. Carry tracts or keep them near.
    8. Share wherever you go.
  5. “Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went.”
    1. Acts 8:4
    2. The Great commission is “go into all the world.”
    3. People need what you have.
    4. Some people are ready.

CONCLUSION:

  • The example of a bag of grass seed.
  • Deadness .vs. seed.

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FROM PASTOR MARK, 09-23-2007

September 23, 2007 by PastorMark.

The prophet Ezekiel preached an urgent message. This was God’s last wakeup call before judgment on Israel and the surrounding nations. As Ezekiel prophesied of the coming holocaust, he kept repeating a phrase again and again: “Then they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 32:15). Most people dismissed Ezekiel’s warnings with attitudes such as: “We’ve been warned before, and nothing ever happens” and “He’s talking about a distant time in the future.” But, Ezekiel’s prophecies came true …in that generation! As we move ever closer to the return of Jesus and world-shaking events, may we fear God and honor His Word. Most people don’t take God seriously, but one day…they will know He is the Lord!

Pastor Mark Boucher

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YOM KIPPUR (Day of Atonement)

September 21, 2007 by admin.

Friday evening, September 21, marks the beginning of YOM KIPPUR (Day of Atonement, Leviticus 23:27). Seeking for forgiveness, and consequently for their names to be written in the Book of Life for the year, Jews around the world will be fasting, repenting, and attending synagogue services on what they consider to be the holiest day of the year.

In ancient times, it was on this day each year that the Jewish high priest, seeking atonement for the sins of Israel, was allowed by God to enter the Most Holy Place in the Temple–but never without the blood of a sacrifice.

On Yom Kippur and every day we rejoice, as believers in Christ, that our Messiah Jesus, THE High Priest, FULFILLED this holy day. ONCE AND FOR ALL, He brought His own Blood to the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place IN HEAVEN (Hebrews 9:12). He thereby obtained eternal redemption, atonement (Hebrews 2:17), for all who repent and believe–both Jew and Gentile–and our names are written forever in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27).

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Life

September 16, 2007 by PastorDave.

Play nowLife, Sunday 09-16-2007, Pastor David McIntosh

Text: John 14:6, 10:10

INTRODUCTION

  1. Genesis 2:7 –“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of LIFE; and man became a living soul.”
  2. Psalm 27:1 – “The Lord is the strength of my LIFE.”
  3. LIFE = “chay”; living, alive, sustain life, as one lives. It is a set of experiences, not an abstract principle that is separate from the body. It is the holistic experience (body, mind and spirit).
  4. James 4:14 proclaims this message: “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.”
  5. Jesus turns the whole thing upside down with this statement in Matthew 10:39- “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

TRANSITION

  1. Some people think life is a big game: play to it’s over and then your done
  2. Others think life is to be devoured; eat all you can because you go around once.
  3. Then others think life is made up of the opinions of other people.
  4. But I want us to see life from two perspectives this morning; two verses of Scripture that affect everyone’s life whether you are Christian or not.

THE THIEF OF LIFE

  1. John 10:10 –“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
  2. The thief of life has come with a three-fold purpose.
  3. Steal: He is looking to steal your most precious commodity: time & energy
    1. One day measure 24 hours.
    2. Recent study of how Americans spend there time in one year showed:
    3. 99 days sleeping
    4. 87 days working
    5. 65 days in front of the TV
    6. 41 days listening to the radio
    7. 30 days doing sports & leisure
    8. 7 days reading the newspaper
    9. 7 days listening to cd’s
    10. 7 days on the internet
    11. Total: 343 days; which consumes 94% of every year we live.
    12. None of these activities are “evil” in and of themselves.
    13. However, this reveals that we have to be intentional about how we spend our time, if we just let each day run itself without having purpose, order and goals, then the enemy is working his work and stealing our time by baiting us with the “good” so we never get to the “best.”

  1. Kill: The thief is looking to kill our bodies.
  2. Romans 12:1, exhorts us to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God for His work; the thief wants to kill the body God has given you.
  3. Annual Causes of death in the U.S.:
    1. Tobacco = 435,000
    2. Poor diet/Physical Inactivity = 365,000
    3. Alcohol = 85,000
    4. Sexual Behavior = 20,000
    5. Illicit Drug Use = 17,000
    6. Total: 922,000 deaths per year.

  1. Destroy: The thief is thirdly looking to destroy relationships.
  2. Genesis 1:28 – “God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (God created relationship, husband & wife and from this relationship flows this command)
  3. Psalm 78:5-7 – “He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, they in turn would tell their children. That they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”
  4. It is through God designed relationships (husband/wife; parents/children; grandparents/grandchildren, brothers/sisters etc) that the next generation becomes grounded & established in the Ways of the Lord.
  5. “Everyday 40% of American children to bed in a home in which their fathers do not live.
  6. Before the age of 18, over 50% of American children will spend the majority of their childhood living apart from their father.
  7. “Yet, despite its scale and social consequences, fatherlessness is a problem that is frequently ignored or denied. It remains largely a problem with no name.” –David Blankenhorn; Fatherless America. (This is one relational area)
  8. So, the thief comes to steal our time, kill our bodies and destroy our relationships, what is our response, how do we react to his?

THE AUTHOR OF LIFE

  1. John 14:6 – “Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
  2. The Author of Life also as a three-fold message for anyone who wants to hear.
  3. I am the Way. The “Way” is narrow.
  4. Matthew 7:14, Jesus told us that, “Narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
  5. Narrow = hemmed in by divine conditions. (The Bible is that narrow road)
  6. On the topic you are wrestling with in life, have you done a personal study of what the Bible all by itself would counsel you to do?
  7. The Truth: If the Way is narrow the truth is specific.
  8. We often like to say, “The truth will set you free,” what listen to what Jesus specifically said in John 8:31.
  9. Jn. 8:31 – “To the Jews who had believed him Jesus said, “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
  10. Specific order here: hold to Jesus specific teachings, changed into a disciple, then that will cause you to begin to know the truth, that truth produced by holding his teachings and becoming His follower, will set you free. Jesus was specific.
  11. The way is narrow, the truth is specific, the life is ABUNDANT!
  12. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
  13. “More Abundantly” is one word in the Greek which means: above the greatest abundance, superabundantly, over and above, more, more abundant, extraordinary, more excellent.
  14. Five “Abundances” that belong to those who pledge their entire life to the Author of Life:

    1. Abundant Joy: Ps. 36:8 – “They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
    2. Abundant Grace: 2 Cor. 9:8 – “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
    3. Abundant Power: Eph. 3:20 – “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
    4. Abundant Supplies: Php. 4:19 – “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
    5. Abundant Entrance: 2 Pe 1:11 – “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

CLOSING

  • Everyday we live “Life.” There is a Thief & an Author, both have an agenda.
  • Christian or not, everyday we have choices to make…I choose life!
  • I choose the narrow way, specific truth and the abundant blessings.
  • How about you, you only have a vapor then it’s gone, make some choices!

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FROM PASTOR MARK, 09-16-2007

September 16, 2007 by PastorMark.

Did you know that light travels at a speed of over 186,000 miles per second? At this speed, light could travel from the earth to the moon in 1.2 seconds! These facts may be of interest, but I am more interested in the “speed of life.” Our society pushes us to go faster and faster and to experience everything we can before we die. The Psalmist got it right when he said, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” If we’re too busy to seek God and let His Word into our hearts, we better learn to slow down. Life isn’t about speed; it’s about loving and obeying God!

Pastor Mark Boucher

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Need to Know

September 9, 2007 by PastorMark.

Play now #287, Need to Know, Sunday 09-09-2007, Pastor Mark Boucher

Text: 2 Peter 1:3-11
Theme: We are to make every effort to add knowledge to our faith.(v 5)

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Sailors and soldiers of old time battled “scurvy”
    1. Scurvy was cured by eating fruit with vitamin C.
  2. Knowledge is vital for life.
    1. We continue to witness the information explosion.
    2. The increase of information doesn’t equal the godly quality of knowledge.
  3. The Word of God is great knowledge.
    1. This knowledge is to help us in relationships and life.
    2. “Knowledge” is mentioned 130 times in the Bible.
    3. Knowledge and wisdom are often interchanged.
    4. Bible knowledge is insight, information which leads to a godly life.
  4. The last 6 references to knowledge are in 2 Peter.
  5. Peter refers to knowledge as our doorway to receive “everything we need for life and godliness.”
  6. Peter refers to knowledge as something we can grow in our lives.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever!” Psalm 3:18

HOW ARE WE TO GROW THIS KNOWLEDGE IN OUR OWN LIFE?

  1. Find the Key.
    1. There is a key to knowledge.
    2. “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge, you yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11:52
    3. “‘But, to His disciples Jesus said, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you …’ ” Luke 8:10
    4. Why did the experts miss it while the disciples received?
    5. The key to knowledge is a heart changed for God.
    6. The heart fears God.
    7. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7
    8. The heart is child-like.
    9. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden those things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” Luke 10:10”21
    10. This heart is made new by Jesus.
    11. “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3)
  2. Ask Him for help.
    1. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)
    2. God is willing to give you knowledge.
    3. He will help you advance His Kingdom.
    4. Pray, “God I don’t know how to influence people toward you, please help me.”
    5. Solomon prayed, “Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours? (2 Chronicles 1:10)
    6. He will help you in your daily work.
    7. He knows more about your work than you do.
    8. He wants to anoint you to do excellent work.
    9. “and he has filled him [Bezalel] with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts.” (Exodus 35:31)
    10. God is not only willing but He is able.
    11. God is all-knowing.
    12. “He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name … His understanding has no limit.” (Psalm 147:4-5)
  3. Discipline yourself.
    1. Go after the “good treasure.”
    2. “through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” (Proverbs 24:4)
    3. Stay away from the knowledge of evil,
    4. In the garden God made all kinds of trees that were “pleasing to the eye and good for food.” Genesis 2:9
    5. He only put a boundary on one “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9

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PASTOR’S PARAGRAPH, 09-09-2007

September 9, 2007 by PastorMark.

God likes to speak to us by using “visuals.” One day, He told the prophet Jeremiah to “go down to the potter’s house.” As Jeremiah watched the potter at work, God spoke to him saying, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:6). The potter helped Jeremiah to visualize God’s sovereignty. Sin and rebellion among God’s people threatened to overwhelm Jeremiah with discouragement. However, the potter’s house message assured Jeremiah that God is still in control. May we have eyes to see the messages God wants to communicate to us today.

Pastor Mark Boucher

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Golden Opportunities

September 3, 2007 by PastorBob.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES, By Pastor Bob Salliby

I am certain that the great majority of Christians are aware that just as there are sins of commission there are also sins of omission. James 4:17 makes this point crystal clear: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” And yet I wonder how many of us ever really think about this or even take it seriously.

2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” Is it possible that when we stand before Christ’s judgment seat He will reveal to us the multitudes of golden opportunities He provided for us that we let slip through our hands or possibly even ignored?

Of all the things Jesus told us to do, there is probably nothing that is as neglected as His command to reach the lost with the gospel. The help us accomplish this, the Holy Spirit provides all of us with countless golden opportunities to reach them. Are we taking advantage of those opportunities? What are we doing to actively and prayerfully reach people with the gospel? In fact when is the last time we spoke to anyone about Jesus? When is the last time we gave anyone a gospel tract, an Amazing Love CD or even a telephone ministry contact card? When is the last time we invited anyone to a Gospel Explosion service that is purposely designed to present the gospel to the lost? How many people did we invite to the last Friendship Sunday or the Alpha Course? How many of these golden opportunities have we neglected?

One of my favorite Bible passages is Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Surely, just as Paul, we all recognize that we have not attained all that Christ has for us. Isn’t it time for us to do the same thing Paul did? Isn’t it time to forget about the past, especially since there’s nothing we can do about it, and to determine to start now to push ahead to accomplish the goal God has for us? Let’s determine to agree with Pastor Mark who has said that he wants to live in such a way that the day he appears before Christ’s judgment seat will be the best day of this life.

I’ve got great news for you. There will be at least three golden opportunities for you to reach your world for Jesus Christ in September and early October. Keep your eyes and ears open for more information on the following opportunities and how you can take advantage of them.

September 12: Effective Personal Soul Winning class begins. This is your opportunity to learn how to introduce your family, friends and acquaintances to Christ. Most of the people who have taken this course will tell you that they were surprised how practical, easy to learn and effective it is.

September 30: Friendship Sunday. Last year’s Friendship Sunday was an overwhelming success. We are doing everything possible to make this year’s even better.

October 7: Alpha Course begins. Most of those who attended the first Alpha Course have either been saved or impacted in such a way that they want to come back again. Our only problem was that we could have ministered to far more people that those who came. We need your help to make this Alpha Course an overwhelming success. The Alpha promotional materials do a great job of “selling” this course for you. All you have to do is give the materials to as many people as you can.

Why not take just a few minutes to write these dates on your calendar and let God know that you will do everything you can, with His help, to take advantage of the golden opportunities He provides to reach the lost for Christ. I can assure you not only that lost souls will be saved, but also that the rewards you will receive will last throughout eternity.

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