The Promised One (Advent)
November 27, 2022 | Come Down
November 27, 2022 • Pastor Ken Cline
AD-VENT \ˈadˌvent\ (noun) The arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent! Of course, we know Advent as a time of anticipating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This event sums up Webster’s definition perfectly. Jesus’ birth (the event) gave us Jesus (the person) and ushered the Kingdom of God and our Salvation (the thing) to Earth! Jesus’ birth was so worth the wait for God’s people – and wait they did! Listen in as Pastor Ken teaches us about the prophet Isaiah and how he foretold Jesus’ birth 700 years before it happened! Our Advent season is only a month long and some of us still get antsy. Can you imagine waiting 700 years for Christmas? Isaiah pleads with God to “come down” and help us and make everything right. And God did come down - but it took a while. The children of Israel had to wait. Waiting is hard, but it’s something we need to learn. Advent helps to teach us this. When we wait on God – without rushing ahead, thinking we know better – the end result is always worth it. Pastor Ken also teaches us that while we wait in this season to celebrate the coming of Jesus in a manger, we need to also look forward to his triumphant return! Just as the children of Israel were waiting for the coming of the Messiah, we are waiting for the return of King Jesus to again set everything right. It’s been thousands of years coming, but it will be so worth the wait. Follow Pastor Ken from Isaiah to Revelation as he teaches us about the One who’s worth waiting for. Oh, and don’t miss the part about riding a rollercoaster…in the most spiritual way possible, of course.
December 4, 2022 | Prince of Shalom
December 4, 2022 • Pastor Ken Cline
We live in a time that’s been called the “already and not yet.” The kingdom of God is alive and well in the world, and yet the full realization of all we have in Jesus has not come to be. This world is not at peace. There are conflicts all over the globe. But we who know Jesus can live with the peace of God ruling in our hearts because of our relationship with Him—the Prince of Peace. Peace is so much more than the absence of fighting. It is a settled state of wellbeing, harmony, and wholeness. It is the people of God working in unity. It is a life marked by trust in God, not a life ruled by anger, worry, anxiety, and stress. Peace, or Shalom, is living life with complete confidence in God’s good plan and His love for us, not living in fear of what God might do to us. Peace is also living with the understanding that pain is not evidence of God leaving us but of the fulfillment of John 16:33, Jesus’ promise that in this world we will experience tribulation. Yet even in our suffering, we know that God has overcome this world and the sin and death that causes us grief. If we are living with the peace of God in our life, we will trust our kids to God and allow Him to do what is necessary to draw them to Himself. We will live in unity with others with a heart of gentleness, kindness, and justice for the oppressed. We will strive to live pure lives apart from sin and full of empathy and compassion. We will live in community with fellow believers, but also with those who do not know Jesus. We will live in harmony with all men, not with haughty superiority, but with humility. When the darkness of this world grows, so also must the light and love of Jesus that is in us. We must be the hands and feet of Jesus spreading the good news of God’s peace to all who will hear it. This is what it means to have a Merry Christmas.
December 18, 2022 | God With Us
December 18, 2022 • Pastor Ken Cline
Matt. 1: 18-19: Mary found herself as a single mom with an unplanned pregnancy. She was engaged to Joseph in what was a powerful engagement that needed a divorce in order to get out of it. It was a legally binding contract. Mary needed to tell Joseph what had happened. Luke 1:28-29 relays Mary’s encounter and response. “Why me?” she may have thought. Verses 30-33 tell that the baby would be king, but there was already “King” Herod. This child would be a blessing and a burden in one–the Son of God. Even though she understood the consequences, her response honors God. “I am the Lord’s servant,” she says (v. 38). The angel left Mary with a big problem. How would she tell others? She would need to walk all of this out through FAITH. She obeyed God through her fear and shame. It would have been right, and common to the culture, for Joseph to divorce her under such circumstances. (See Matt. 1:19.) Instead, an angel confirms Mary’s encounter with him in a dream (vs.20-21). Jesus, which means, “The Lord saves,” would die for the sins of all. Matt. 1:22-23 echoes Messianic prophecy from the book of Isaiah. Joseph, being a righteous man, did what the angel told him. Think about it! Jesus’ birth was SHAMEFUL, and He came into this mess of a world with us! God is WITH us. God is with ME. Remember what Matt 28:19-20 says? In Isaiah 7: 1-2, God gave this word when 120,000 people were lost. God is still with us! Be glad when God is shaking a situation. Worry and anxiety in a sin. Check your soul. Don’t be afraid, but rest (Is.7: 4-5). If we aren't in peace, do we really believe God is who He says He is? In II Chron., God tells Ahaz to ask Him for a sign, and God said a virgin would give birth to a child and the surrounding kingdoms in place at that time would be no more. Seven hundred years later, Jesus would fulfill that prophecy. Ahaz, instead, developed his own plan without God. Is. 8:11-13 warned against conspiracies. We can learn from this not to give conspiracy theories any power over us. We are not to rely on fortune tellers (vs. 19-20) but Scripture. We can see that trusting in anything else but God turns out bad (vs.21-22). Trusting in God, however, results in a good outcome (Is. 9:1-2, 6-7). Ps 2:1-4 shows that God laughs at man’s feeble attempts. No one wins against God. The challenge today is to renew our faith by trusting and obeying in God. JOY TO THE WORLD! We can walk in faith and not fear.