13
July
2009
1:3 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 1:4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; 1:6 to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; 1:7 to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. 1:8 For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.
2 Peter 1:3-8 NET
Key Point: To grow in godliness requires that we trust Jesus’ promises, instead of following those who teach wrong beliefs Signs of transformation
What is a “heresy”?
What are main heresies confronting church today?
1. __________ __________
If we don’t accept Biblical authority we can’t expect His promises to be trustworthy
2. __________ /__________ of Jesus
If we don’t accept the divinity/humanity of Jesus, we can’t expect His provision of salvation to be trustworthy Outcome of wrong beliefs
Where/how are we heretics? Benefits of right beliefs
Action: v. 5 –8 Add characteristics
How? v 4 = God’s “very great and precious promises” gives us everything we need by knowing Jesus (= love commitment)
Where/ how are we growing in godliness?
rochcov 
Pastor Gary Downing, 1st Service, Sermons, 2 Peter 
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25
January
2009
17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because he saw the city was full of idols. 17:17 So he was addressing the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there. 17:18 Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, “What does this foolish babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 17:19 So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming? 17:20 For you are bringing some surprising things to our ears, so we want to know what they mean.” 17:21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.)
17:22 So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. 17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you. 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, 17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. 17:26 From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, 17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 17:28 For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination. 17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, 17:31 because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
17:32 Now when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 17:33 So Paul left the Areopagus.
Key Point: Throughout history those in honest pursuit of truth have discovered more and more of God’s purpose and design for all creation
Summary: What is Truth? Who Is God? Who is Human?
Worldviews in conflict
Why does the Bible start with creation?
Why does western science start with human reason?
Foundation - Authority of God vs. Autonomy of humanity
Honest pursuit of truth leads to new discoveries
Reality exists in the mind of God!
Quest for a universal, unifying theory of the universe?
It will not be founded on the autonomy of humanity
What’s your foundation?
How can we share it?
rochcov Pastor Gary Downing, 1st Service, Sermons, Acts Comments (0) » |
31
December
2008
Translation from Bible.org
To hear it read, click here.
Revelation 22
22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life - water as clear as crystal - pouring out from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
22:2 flowing down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
22:3 And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him,
22:4 and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
22:5 Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
A Final Reminder
22:6 Then the angel said to me, “These words are reliable and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must happen soon.”
22:7 (Look! I am coming soon!
Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy expressed in this book.)
22:8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw them, I threw myself down to worship at the feet of the angel who was showing them to me.
22:9 But he said to me, “Do not do this! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who obey the words of this book. Worship God!”
22:10 Then he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near.
22:11 The evildoer must continue to do evil, and the one who is morally filthy must continue to be filthy. The one who is righteous must continue to act righteously, and the one who is holy must continue to be holy.”
22:12 (Look! I am coming soon,
and my reward is with me to pay each one according to what he has done!
22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last,
the beginning and the end!)
22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.
22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood!
22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!”
22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.
22:18 I testify to the one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
22:19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.
22:20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
rochcov New Testament, Revelation Comments (0) » |
31
December
2008
Translation from Bible.org
To hear it read, click here.
Revelation 21
A New Heaven and a New Earth
21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.
21:2 And I saw the holy city - the new Jerusalem - descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.
21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more - or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
21:5 And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then he said to me, “Write it down, because these words are reliable and true.”
21:6 He also said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life.
21:7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.”
The New Jerusalem Descends
21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!”
21:10 So he took me away in the Spirit to a huge, majestic mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
21:11 The city possesses the glory of God; its brilliance is like a precious jewel, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
21:12 It has a massive, high wall with twelve gates, with twelve angels at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel are written on the gates.
21:13 There are three gates on the east side, three gates on the north side, three gates on the south side and three gates on the west side.
21:14 The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
21:15 The angel who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod with which to measure the city and its foundation stones and wall.
21:16 Now the city is laid out as a square, its length and width the same. He measured the city with the measuring rod at fourteen hundred miles (its length and width and height are equal).
21:17 He also measured its wall, one hundred forty-four cubits according to human measurement, which is also the angel’s.
21:18 The city’s wall is made of jasper and the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.
21:19 The foundations of the city’s wall are decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,
21:20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
21:21 And the twelve gates are twelve pearls - each one of the gates is made from just one pearl! The main street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.
21:22 Now I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God - the All-Powerful - and the Lamb are its temple.
21:23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb.
21:24 The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur into it.
21:25 Its gates will never be closed during the day (and there will be no night there).
21:26 They will bring the grandeur and the wealth of the nations into it,
21:27 but nothing ritually unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
rochcov New Testament, Revelation Comments (0) » |
30
December
2008
Translation from Bible.org
To hear it read, click here.
Revelation 20
The Thousand Year Reign
20:1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.
20:2 He seized the dragon - the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan - and tied him up for a thousand years.
20:3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)
20:4 Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
20:5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection.
20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Satan’s Final Defeat
20:7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison
20:8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea.
20:9 They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.
20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.
The Great White Throne
20:11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.
20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened - the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.
20:13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.
20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death - the lake of fire.
20:15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
rochcov New Testament, Revelation Comments (0) » |
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