Audio Sermons: On Mixcloud

The following Series are available on Mixcloud:

PLEASE NOTE: You can turn off the background music when listening to the audio teachings. To do so, go to the right-hand column and click the stop or pause button on the audio player.

**To play the next audio teaching in a series, just click on the "up next" arrow located at the bottom right corner of the player. You can access each subsequent teaching in order.

CHRISTMAS SERIES 

Christmas, and what follows, lies deep in the Old Testament. At every turn, Jesus was fulfilling a role that was shaped by more than a millennium of prediction. No aspect of the Messiah’s ministry of redemption was without anticipatory reflection. At the moment of Jesus’ birth, the entire scope and focus of the Old Testament came into sharp relief: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).

Our salvation is something God has been planning for a very long time—outside of time, to be exact: in the counsels of eternity, in a covenant that was made between the three persons of the Trinity.

From eternity, the Lord has loved His people. Christmas is the visible demonstration of it; Calvary, the cost of it; resurrection and ascension, the triumph and effectiveness of it.

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW: 

(Chapters 1-12)

(Chapters 13 - 22)

(Chapters 23 - 28)

Matthew wrote his account of Jesus’s ministry to show that Jesus was and is indeed the King, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. He reflected this concern in his opening line, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). From there, Matthew consistently took his readers back to the Old Testament, providing Old Testament testimony regarding the birth of Jesus, Bethlehem as the location of Jesus’s birth, the flight to Egypt, Herod’s slaughter of the infants, and the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. In a world where many in the Jewish community had claimed the role of Messiah for themselves, Matthew’s commitment to grounding the life of Jesus in the Old Testament raised Jesus above the multitude of these false messiahs. The apostle painted a portrait of our Lord that highlights His uniqueness among all others to ever walk this earth.

THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS:

The church at Colossae was under attack from false teachers who were denigrating the deity of Jesus; they were teaching that He was not actually God. Though Paul had never been to the church itself, he addressed these issues head-on. The nature of Jesus Christ as Creator and Redeemer was nonnegotiable, so Paul wrote to them that he might bring his wisdom to bear on this difficult and trying situation. It was critical to him that this church know God in His greatness and glory, rather than in the deficient view given them by the false teachers (Colossians 1:25; 2:1–2).

THE BOOK OF PHILEMON:

The letter to Philemon reminds us that God’s revelation to humanity is intensely personal. In more formal biblical works such as the Gospels or the epistle to the Romans or even Paul’s letters to churches at Philippi or Colossae, it might be easy to get the impression that God does not care or have time for the trials and tribulations in a single household. Philemon stands as one piece of strong evidence to the contrary, revealing that lofty doctrines such as the love of God, forgiveness in Christ, or the inherent dignity of humanity have real and pertinent impact in everyday life. The book of Philemon illustrates that principles like these can and should profoundly affect the lives of believers.

THE BOOK OF MALACHI

The people of Judah began to be exiled from the Promised Land in 605 BC, returning from Babylon seventy years later. By the time of Malachi, they had been back in the land for more than a hundred years and were looking for the blessings they expected to receive when they returned. Though the temple had been rebuilt, the fervor of those early returning Israelites gave way to a thorough apathy for the things of God. This led to rampant corruption among the priesthood and a spiritual lethargy among the people.

Malachi came along at a time when the people were struggling to believe that God loved them (Malachi 1:2). The people focused on their unfortunate circumstances and refused to account for their own sinful deeds. So, God pointed the finger back at them, and through Malachi, God told the people where they had fallen short of their covenant with Him. If they hoped to see changes, they needed to take responsibility for their own actions and serve God faithfully according to the promise their fathers had made to God on Mount Sinai all those years before.

THE BOOK OF NAHUM:

After allowing approximately two hundred years of powerful Assyrian kings and rulers, God announced through Nahum His plans to judge the city of Nineveh. While the book as a whole clearly shows God’s concern over sin, His willingness to punish those guilty of wickedness, and His power to carry out His desire for judgment, it also contains rays of hope shining through the darkness. Most significant, the people of Judah would have immediately taken hope in the idea that Nineveh, their primary oppressor for generations, would soon come under judgment from God. Also, a small but faithful remnant in an increasingly idolatrous Judah would have been comforted by declarations of God’s slowness to anger (Nahum 1:3), His goodness and strength (1:7), and His restorative power (2:2).

THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH:

(Jeremiah 1 through 21)

(Jeremiah 22 - 40) 

(Jeremiah 41 - 52) 

The prophecies of Jeremiah offer us a unique insight into the mind and heart of one of God’s faithful servants. The book of Jeremiah also provides us the clearest glimpse of the new covenant God intended to make with His people once Christ came to earth. This new covenant would be the means of restoration for God’s people, as He would put His law within them, writing it on hearts of flesh rather than on tablets of stone. Rather than fostering our relationship with God through a fixed location like a temple, He promised through Jeremiah that His people would know Him directly, a knowledge that comes through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 31:31–34; see also Hebrews 8:6).

ECCLESIASTES

Ecclesiastes, like much of life, represents a journey from one point to another. Solomon articulated his starting point early in the book: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2), indicating the utter futility and meaninglessness of life as he saw it. Nothing made sense to him because he had already tried any number of remedies—pleasure, work, and intellect—to alleviate his sense of feeling lost in the world.

However, even in the writer’s desperate search for meaning and significance in life, God remained present. For instance, we read that God provides food, drink, and work (2:24); both the sinner and the righteous person live in God’s sight (2:26); God’s deeds are eternal (3:14); and God empowers people to enjoy His provision (5:19). Ultimately, the great truth of Ecclesiastes lies in the acknowledgment of God’s ever-present hand on our lives. Even when injustice and uncertainty threaten to overwhelm us, we can trust Him and follow after Him (12:13–14).

THE BOOK OF REVELATION

The book of Revelation provides the clearest biblical portrait of the events of the tribulation, dealing with the specifics of that terrible time (chapters 4–18). The tribulation will be a time of judgment, a time when those left on the earth after the rapture will suffer deeply for their nonbelief. John pictured this judgment as a series of twenty-one events—inaugurated by the breaking of seven seals, the blowing of seven trumpets, and the pouring out of seven bowls. This grand judgment on the sinfulness of humanity shows the seriousness with which God views sin—payment will be exacted from those not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

CHRIST THE SAVIOR IS BORN - Series

THE PASSION SERIES

   

PROPHECY UPDATE

END TIMES SERIES:

When you think of the end times, we often think of the time right before Jesus comes back. Sometimes the Bible refers to this as the last days. When you hear terms like last days and end times, what may first come to mind is immediacy or something that is eminent. However, the last days began when Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1 and the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost. This period will end when Christ returns.

With this understanding, it’s important to recognize we have been living in this period for two thousand years as we have been looking for and expecting Christ’s return.

There are three major events typically associated with the end times. 

• The Rapture of the Church
• The Great Tribulation
• The Second Coming of Christ

WORLD EVENTS AND BIBLE PROPHECY

Is it possible that current world events are setting the stage for what will happen before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Earth? Only God knows the answer. But the Bible foretells significant things concerning nations that are in the news today.

THE PSALMS
Chapters 1-11

The book of Psalms expresses worship. Throughout its many pages, Psalms encourages its readers to praise God for who He is and what He has done. The Psalms illuminate the greatness of our God, affirm His faithfulness to us in times of trouble, and remind us of the absolute centrality of His Word. As the Psalms present a clear picture of God lovingly guiding His people, the responses of praise and worship to God are never far from the psalmists’ pens. The portrayal of worship in the Psalms offers us glimpse after glimpse of hearts devoted to God, individuals repentant before Him, and lives changed through encounters with Him.