What a beautiful day for worship this past Sunday!  We’ve been walking through the text of Genesis and examining the story of Noah and the Flood.  As we approach Easter Sunday, I hope that we will be able to see the parallels of God redeeming act through Noah and God’s superior redeeming act through His Son, Jesus Christ.

In this part of the story, I thought about how Noah and his family could survive approximately 400 days together in the ark.  Imagine staying in one place with your family with no other outside contact for over a year!  I think for most of us a week is plenty.

How did they get along?  Their focus, trust, and devotion was in God.  Their obedience to His plan and following through with that helped them see beyond themselves and be totally committed to His will in their lives.

How about for you?  Within your family, workplace, community, and even church…how do we get along?  When we are truly devoted to God and seeking His will in our lives, our own desires become God’s.  When the desires of God become the desires of our family, we move in step with His plan, and there we find joy.  The same is true of our church.  Several scriptures point to where the early church was most blessed when it was one in spirit and mind seeking God’s leading for their lives.  May we remember daily that it is not about us, and may we seek to please Him each and every day.

You can download the sermon here:  Eight is Enough by Rev. Bryon LePere

Scriptures Referenced:

• Genesis 7:1-5
  • 1 Peter 3:20
• Genesis 7:6-16
  • Malachi 3:10
• Genesis 7:17-24
  • Jonah 2:7
  • Exodus 13:20-21
  • Joshua 1:6-9
  • Acts 2:42-47, 4:32, 9:31
  • Matthew 21:42-43
  • Mark 4:35-39
• Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 1:27, Hebrews 12:1-2

Another great day to be in God’s House!  It was truly a blessing to have Matt from the IMB share with us in worship.  Please keep him in your prayers as he and his family head to Japan next Wednesday.

In my message I started us in a study of Noah and the Flood.  There is certainly a dearth of research and study on this topic, and I will fall short, but I want us to consider how the story of God and Noah has parallels with the story of God and Jesus.  In both stories, God does something new in seeking to redeem His Creation to Himself.

As much as God’s work with Noah was an act of compassion, we see the heart of God in Jesus when Jesus tells us of His compassion for Jerusalem and we consider what He does for humankind through His death and Resurrection.  And, just as everyone else had rejected God in Noah’s time, so many rejected Jesus.

And, today, I believe there are still many that reject Christ when they claim His Word as their guide, and yet they intentionally reject so many of His teachings.  Thoughts?

You can download the sermon here: The Heart of God by Rev. Bryon LePere

Scriptures Referenced:

• Genesis 6:5-8
• Colossians 1:19, 2:9
• 1 Samuel 15:11, Joel 2:13
• Genesis 18:3, Exodus 33:17
• Luke 13:34-35
  • Matthew 9:36
  • John 11:35, Matthew 26:38
  • Matthew 23:37
    • James 4:17
• Matthew 5:38-39, 43-44, 6:14-15, 7:1-3
• Mark 9:35, Luke 18:18-25, John 6:60-67

What a morning!  What a blessing to be in God’s house!  I looked at Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve and the serpent are judged, cursed, and cast out of the Garden of Eden.  In our own lives and faith, we are either moving away from God through our sin (going) or we are growing closer to Him through our maturing faith (coming).  My 3 points:

1. Are you going?  Are you living in sin absent a relationship with Jesus Christ?  Just as Adam and Eve through their disobedience were driven out (and away) from God, so too we are moving away from Him when we persist in our sinful disobedience.
2. Are you coming?  Are you a believer, having truly repented and been baptized into a community of faith?  2 Peter 3.18 tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our lives should be lived in the constant pursuit of knowing Christ and growing in Christ each and every day.
3. If you are coming, if you are a believer, how are you influencing others?  Does your life and witness cause them to move closer to faith in God (coming) or are you driving them away (going)?  Too often we get comfortable, thinking that we are saved and have little left to do.  That in itself is wrong, but how much worse to consider that because of our negative or hypocritical example of faith we might keep others from coming into the saving grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ?

Scriptures Referenced:

• Genesis 3.8-24
• Isaiah 59.2
• Matthew 7.13-14
• Luke 17.1-3
• Romans 5.18-19, 6.23, 10.9-10, 12.17
• 1 Corinthians 10.31-32
• 2 Corinthians 5.16-21
• Ephesians 2.1-2
• Hebrews 6.4-12
• Revelations 21.25

Your thoughts?

Good evening!  Hope each of you has a blessed week.  My goal this morning was to look at the story of Adam and Eve in the garden and what is now known as The Fall.  From this scripture, we can that there are several steps that lead humans through temptation and then sin.  How we understand this can influence how we seek to win the battle against Satan and his temptations.

Consider how the battle begins with an influence outside of us, then a debate and struggle goes on within us.  If we lose, and we sin, then we must deal with the consequential guilt.  It is for this reason that Christ came into this world, to show us that as He did, we can overcome this world if we fully trust in Him.  Also, realize that Christ, though fully divine, was also fully human and endured every trial and temptation that we do.  Your thoughts?

Scriptures Referenced:

• Genesis 3.1-8
• 1 Kings 8.46-50
• Numbers 32.23, Psalm 51, Daniel 9.5
• Matthew 4.1, 6.13, 9.13
• 1 Corinthians 10.13
• Hebrews 2.18, 4.15
• John 1.29
• James 1.13-14
• Romans 3.23

Scriptures referenced:

• Genesis 2.4-15
• Deuteronomy 5.10, 1 Samuel 7.1, Jeremiah 31.10 (use of the Hebrew word for keep, watch, guard, take care of)
• 1 Corinthians 3.5-9
• John 7.38, 2 Peter 3.18

See you soon!

Blessings

Pastor Bryon

Scriptures referenced:

• Genesis 1.24-31
• Colossians 1.15-20
• 2 Corinthians 4.4
• Colossians 3.1-14
• Romans 12.4-5
• 1 Corinthians 12.12, 27
• Ephesians 5.30
• Ephesians 4.11-13

Your thoughts?  What did you here?  How did God speak to you during this examination of His Word?  Share your thoughts with each other!