Throwing the Word

In today's podcast, Pastor Steve shows us how it is both encouraging and correcting to think about God's watchfulness. In Ezra 5, we see a testimony, not of God's children, but of their enemies, and yet God is glorified through their words! God's message is clearly proclaimed and the Gospel is found in this little known chapter of the Old Testament! Join us and fill your seed bags with a timely message.

In this week's podcast, Pastor Steve introduces us to another prophet - Zechariah. The Children of Israel have stopped their work on God's house and for 16 years have focused on building their own. This cannot be! So now, The Lord sends His personal Spokesmen to get His message across! When God wanted His people to follow His commands - He sent Haggai and Haggai told it like it is - in this message we will see that Zechariah is the prophet who tells it like he sees it and it is a brutally personal, confrontational, and yet completely Gospel cerntered message. You will not have to listen very closely to see the shadow of the Coming Messiah in this padcast! Join us as we continue to see God at work in His people!

In this week's podcast, Pastor Steve continues his series on Ezra by taking us on a little rabbit trail into the life and ministry of the prophet Haggai. The short book of Haggai is full of the correction of the Lord for His people who have stopped doing what he has commanded and need to be told, clearly and specifically, what their problem is. When we think about how it fits into the ministry of Ezra, we can see that when God desires to correct and encourage His people, He sends them His Word, and it is enough!

In this podcast, listen as Pastor Steve shows us how Jesus and judgment go hand in hand. There is so much of the Gospel in this truth: Jesus IS COMING to judge and convict! Also, how can the Lord come if He is still dead? The Living Lord IS coming because HE isn’t still dead! The Living Lord is coming and HE isn’t alone. The ungodly have no hope in their ungodliness. Just because they are ungodly doesn’t mean that God isn’t God! The Lord isn’t diminished or defeated simply because these people don’t accept Him or His Word.

Rather than focusing on the ungodly, recognize that what we see of them and hear of them and feel of them is nothing compared to the moment when the Risen Lord appears! What a joy, but that isn't all. Wait until the end and see one more, extremely significant aspect of how Jesus and judgment go hand in hand... It is worth the wait!

In the most recent Podcast, Pastor Steve shows us how psalm 29 is an anthem that proclaims the grandeur of the voice of the Lord. As a matter of fact, this psalm rolls right along like the rolling of thunder. Each phrase pounding our senses like the thunder that pounds our ear. 

There is a very real, raw aspect in the thought of hearing someone's voice. It doesn’t say God’s 'Word’ as in some intangible aspect of communication. It is talking about the actual process of making words! God HAS spoken! Steve wants us to notice the movement of this psalm - It moves through the northern kingdom and on down into Judea, past the place of worship and then out into the southern desert! It is over many waters. His voice is like a raging ocean storm building up off the coast and terrible! His voice moves through the coastal region, destroying great trees and causing so much destruction that it is as if the very land is shaking and moving. His voice is so much more than thundering - as it moves across the land lightning flashes and explodes everywhere!

This is the voice that needs to be heard in our families. This is the voice that Christ brings to our hearts. LISTEN!

In this podcast, Pastor Steve talks about one of the modern church's most needed attributes - discernment. These people approach the leaders of the returning Israelites and say that they simply want to be a part of what God is doing! What is the harm in letting them put bricks on top of each other and clear out rubble and assist us in getting the temple done quicker? As we listen, we will see that there is more here than meets the eye! Join us and learn the importance of discernment.

In this week's Podcast, Pastor Steve tells us that it is very important to recognize that Jude didn’t abbreviate his opinion of the ungodly. Rather, he emphasizes how terrible they are. It is really like Jude is wielding his hammer and hammering over and over and over again while he is making this point. In our culture of tolerance, of not judging, and not offending anyone, this is eyeopening. Jude isn’t playing around in his description of these people. He has repeatedly, in the most offensive fashion, defined these people in the worst sense possible! Make no mistake about this, Jude condemns them!

Join Pastor Steve as we see that although sin IS terrible, Jesus Christ is wonderful and He will cleanse us from our sin!

In this podcast, Pastor Steve walks us through Jude's contrast between the ungodly and the Archangel Michael and we see the obvious difference. On one side we have those who only know what they want to know - they only do what they want to do - and they only say what they want to say - they ARE ungodly. On the other side we have one who, for all intents and purposes, has so much more right to do what he wants but he is completely submitted to the Lordship of God - Contending for the faith means submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ and waiting for Him to carry out His own will.

Way too often we think of the Bible as if it were God’s purpose to kill our joy and destroy our freedom but that is a terrible way to look at it! It shows us how to stay safe - it protects us from straying outside His will, and it establishes boundaries for our thinking, feeling, and doing. What part is His Word playing in your life? In this podcast, Pastor Steve will look at how everything that the returning exiles have been doing so far has been according to the commands of God in His Word. The feasts, the sacrifices, use of the vessels, and even their priestly garments all find their origin in the Word of the Lord. When they acted, their methods were based on the Word of the Lord and they were united in this!

In Ezra 3:8-13, we can see how the Word shows them where to go, what to pay attention to, and how to follow God’s commands.

In the most recent Podcast, Pastor Steve tells us about how Jude wanted to write another letter, one that presented the gospel. Something happened that caused him to write a letter of warning and correction - In the verses that we are going to look at this morning, Jude will begin to describe the end of these ungodly people. He does it by turning to the Old Testament.

In this week's Podcast, Pastor Steve has a Mother's Day message. Everywhere in the Bible, God is the one who gives life and this is a prime example! This ought to cause us to appreciate these rewards from the Lord! It ought to cause us to look at our kids with hope and courage because God is the source! Mothers, your children aren’t an accident and neither are you! In today's message we will see how God brings suffering into our lives and how Hannah serves as an example of how we can think of God in the face of emotional struggles. It is our prayer that you will find hope in the same place that Hannah did!

In this podcast, Pastor Steve is excited about how God is revealing so many parts of the Gospel message. As we look at Ezra 3, we can see that God has been laying the groundwork for the message of Jesus Christ and it is clear for anyone to see. Join us as we share in Pastor Steve's excitement.

In today's podcast, Pastor Steve is going to help us see why lists of names are important for us to take some time to read and try to understand.

In the list in Ezra 2, we can see priests, levites, singers, gatekeepers, and various other individuals who did all kinds of tasks all focused on giving God the glory that He deserves! When we read this kind of list, at the very least we ought to consider the enormous responsibility that God laid upon His worshippers to get it right! We need to consider the tremendous amount of work that had to be done to make one person right with God in a temporary fashion!

In today's podcast, join us as Pastor Steve challenges us to contend FOR the Gospel. It is crucial that Christians know the Gospel, share the Gospel, and that they intensely strive to make sure that others know that the Gospel is Truth.

Join us today as Pastor Steve tells us about the significance of the vessels of the Temple. There were golden vessels and silver vessels, each made to the exact specifications that God had commanded to Moses. These would’ve been beautiful and precious to behold - all pointing to the magnificence and grandeur of the One whose exaltation was their purpose! They each served a purpose and played a part in the life that God had given the Israelites and they point us to the One who fulfilled all of the purposes of these vessels and so much more. Listen as Steve encourages us to recognize that, just as those vessels were meant to draw the attention of the Israelites to their moment in the history of God's people, God is at work in us to grab ahold of the moment in history in which God has placed us!

Join Pastor Steve as he looks at how it was God behind Jeremiah's prophecy, Cyrus' proclamation and provision, and the Israelites’ return to rebuild His Temple. God is in the Driver's seat and He is the One who is the source behind the Power. It is our prayer that God will use this message to stir up your hearts to serve Him.

Join us as Pastor Steve answers this question. 

Maybe for some of you, the book of Ezra is part of the Bible that is a bit murky for you. It certainly was for me! I knew all of the early stories - Creation, Fall, Exodus, Samson, David and Goliath, Solomon the wise, and even Isaiah's great vision of heaven where the Cherub took a coal and touched his mouth to purify him. I knew there were kings and rulers and such that lived and ruled for years between David and the New Testament but the books that come after Psalms were just not a part of the Bible that I read. It is possible that somewhere in my mind I understood that Esther and Daniel's history fell with-in this time but since they weren't set in Israel I didn't know how they worked.

This morning we are going to look at a couple of passages in the Old Testament story that will help us to see how the Children of God ended up living in Babylon.

If you had to narrow down the Christian message to It's bare bones minimum, what would it be? In this episode, Pastor Steve defines this message from 1 Corinthians 15:3-11. 

What is the message of Christianity? 

It isn’t simply the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead but the reality that He did die for our sins, that He WAS buried, and that He WAS raised from the dead! 

In this week's podcast, Pastor Steve will be describing the Gospel.