This Christmas 2023, Pastor Kevin challenges us to reflect anew on the miraculous birth of Jesus, Whose virgin birth the prophet Isaiah spoke of 700 years earlier: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 9:7). Thirty-three years after His birth, Jesus died to atone for the…
In the tenth and final plague, the Lord slew all the firstborn of in the land of Egypt, people and animals, with the exception of the Israelites and others who obeyed God’s instructions to apply the blood of a blemish-free lamb to the lintel and doorposts of their homes. Pharaoh, bereft of his own firstborn son, finally humbles himself and gives Moses…
Today, we see God again command Moses to confront Pharaoh while Moses again pleads his inadequacy to do so. Moses asks God, “…and how shall Pharaoh heed me” (Exodus 6:30), and God replies, “But Pharaoh will not heed you” (Exodus 7:4). Pastor Kevin points to the parallels in the life of the prophet Jeremiah, 800 years later. In both cases, God assures his servants that He will give…
As God had foretold, Pharaoh refuses Moses’ request to let the Israelites leave Egypt and instead makes life increasingly difficult for them. The Israelites turn on Moses and Aaron saying, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants” (Exodus 5:21). Similarly, God warns us that obeying Jesus’ command to preach His…
Our study continues in Exodus Chapter 1, focusing on the midwives who disobeyed the new pharaoh’s command to murder all newborn Hebrew males and then lied to him about their failure to do so. Even though lying is a sin, Scripture tells us, “Therefore God dealt well with the midwives … because the midwives feared God…” (Exodus 1:20-21). Drawing from other examples in Scripture, Pastor Kevin explains…
Audio file includes the communion portion of the service Pastor Kevin begins a new series in the Book of Exodus with an overview of the historical background from the Book of Genesis. In Genesis, we see how God dealt with humankind differently as time progressed, from Creation, to the Fall, to the Flood, and to the call of Abraham whose descendants, Isaac, Jacob,…
Audio link includes communion portion of the service We begin Hebrews Chapter 12 this morning with the writer pointing to the faith heroes in Chapter 11, a “great cloud of witnesses,” and exhorting us to “let us lay aside every weight…and… run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). Endurance is the overarching theme of Hebrews – believers are called to…
April 23, 2023 – Today, we begin our study in Hebrews 11, often called God’s “Faith Hall of Fame.” Building upon the previous (Chapter 10) exhortations to endure in our faith, Chapter 11 goes on to describe the faith that endures. It is faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for sin, personally appropriated, which comes by hearing and humbly responding to God’s gospel of peace. Our faith is…
April 16, 2023 Returning to our study of Hebrews this week, Pastor Kevin reminds us that the overarching message of this book for its original audience, Jews living after the Resurrection but before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, is: Abandon the Old Testament system of human priests and animal sacrifices because Jesus was our once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin and…