Most assuredly, we are witnessing a cultural shift in our society today—a movement from what is morally right in the sight of God to what is morally corrupt and wrong. If you live in diminished light long enough, you begin to believe that obscurity, ambiguity, and obtuseness are rather normal, but in time this deprivation will show its ugly face. For example, if you place a blooming plant which requires full sun into a heavily-shaded environment, you will soon observe the ill effects of it yielding fewer or no blooms and declining health. In like manner, God created man to walk with Him and bear fruit in the light through Jesus Christ, the Light and Life of the world. I can just hear multitudes saying to themselves, “There must be a better way”—and there emphatically IS! His name is JESUS! In Matthew 4:16, Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9:2, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.” The light was JESUS. The book of Hebrews mentions the word “better” 13 times, all referring to Jesus—the better way, the better truth, and the better Life for those who walk in obedience to Him. Audio: (Click forward button below to play audio of sermon and/or download file.)
Personal Testimonies: Prior to the morning's message, Pastor Mark opens the floor to life testimonies. It is great encouragement to hear how the Lord is working in each of our lives. Click the forward button below to play the personal testimonies of Pastor Mark and others and/or download file.)
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For so many, the annual pilgrimage to church occurs on Easter Sunday, perhaps out of tradition or feelings of guilt if they do not attend. But what do the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to you? What is the significance of the power of God to raise His Son from the dead, and is it relevant in your life today? Let’s visit what the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus meant to Paul in Philippians 3:10-11, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul diligently sought to know Jesus—not intellectually, but experientially and intimately in his daily walk. He hungered for and pursued God for a flow of the Holy Spirit that the life of Jesus would be seen in him and witnessed by others. All his passion was due to the identification, ownership, and commitment he had to Jesus who had surrendered His life for him. How about you? Are you experiencing and encountering the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in your life today? Remember—He arose that you may live! Audio: (Click forward button below to play audio of sermon and/or download file.)
Long before His miraculous birth on earth, Jesus was involved in the creation of all that we see on earth and what we cannot see in the universe and the expanse beyond. He was with the Father in the beginning and Hebrews 1:1,2 tells us that “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the world.” John wrote about His beginning. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the word of Life–” (I John 1:1) The Ancient of Days, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, Jesus Himself declared to a group of self-righteous Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58) How marvelous and gracious that our heavenly Father had a plan from the beginning, through Jesus, to redeem those who confess Him as Lord and Savior. Audio: (Click forward button below to play audio of sermon and/or download mp3 file.)
Personal Testimonies: Prior to the morning's message, Pastor Mark opens the floor to life testimonies. It is great encouragement to hear how the Lord is working in each of our lives. Click the forward button below to play the personal testimonies of Pastor Mark and others and/or download mp3 file.)
Approximately 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah declared, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” (Isaiah 9:2) In verse 6 he continued, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Every soul on earth not walking with Jesus, walks in darkness, without life, and without hope, for Jesus told us, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Zacharias (father of John the Baptist), filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied about Jesus and said, “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78, 79) Dayspring means rising of the sun; the dawn. What illuminates your life–the world with its darkness or the light of the Dayspring? Audio: (Click forward button below to play audio of sermon and/or download mp3 file.)
Personal Testimonies: We had a wonderful blessing at the end of our service today. One of our young members walked in as Pastor Mark was finishing the morning’s message. Seaman Josh Turner, United States Coast Guard, just finished his basic training in New Jersey and returned home for a week before his new assignment in Seattle begins on the USCG Cutter Mellon. Listen as he tells how God is blessing his life. Pastor Linda Pugsley and Ted Marshall commend Josh on his service to God and country. (Click the forward button below to play the personal testimonies and/or download mp3 file.)
In God’s vast and unfathomable love, He has given to mankind a means to inherit eternal life through the birth, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is important and encouraging for us to reflect not only on the magnificent and miraculous advent of Christ’s birth, but on God’s ancient and graceful plan to redeem mankind ever since the beginning of days. We can read about Christ before Christmas in several passages. In John 17:5, “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” Also in John 1:1 and 2, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” In Hebrews, we are told that Jesus laid the foundation of the earth and that the heavens are the work of His hands. (Hebrews 1:2, 10) May you be blessed and enriched with hope to see God’s plan revealed and fulfilled through Jesus—before, during, and after His birth—for His years will not come to an end. (See Hebrews 1:12 and Revelation 1:17, 18) Audio: (Click forward button below to play audio of sermon and/or download mp3 file.)
Personal Testimonies: Prior to the morning's message, Pastor Mark opens the floor to life testimonies. It is great encouragement to hear how the Lord is working in each of our lives. Click the forward button below to play the personal testimonies of Pastor Mark and others and/or download mp3 file.)
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