A Story of Grace

Jesus tells a story to drive home the point that salvation is all of grace.   The parable of the landowner and the vinyard workers  has many practical lessons for our lives.  One big lesson is the grace of God which leave us no room for pride!  For a listen of Pastor Mark’s exposition of Matthew 20:1-19 click hear.

Forsaking All and Following Christ!

Today’s morning sermon called us to true discipleship.  Are you following Christ or are you just playing church games?    Pastor Mark preached from the same passage as last week ( Matthew 19:16-26) with a different focus and included the last few verses to close out the chapter (Matthew 19:27-30).  The general outline to the message is as follows: The Call, the Response, and the Reward for Forsaking All and Following Christ.   Click here to download the message for a listen.

November Pastor’s Chat – The Lamb of God is Worthy of Praise!

November Pastor’s Chat

God is worthy! The things of which God are worthy, from Revelation 5:12, have challenged us this year: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Thus far, we have focused on what God is worthy of, but have not focused on the name of God in this verse. In this coming month of Thanksgiving let us focus on our God who is the Lamb.

This Lamb is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ whom John the Baptist identified as such in John 1:29 when he saw, “Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  Thanksgiving and love should well up in our hearts toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who bore our sin on the cross of Calvary as the Lamb of God ( I Peter 1:18-21).  We who have been forgiven much should love much (Luke 7:47).  But do we?

Do you sometimes sense a lack of love and thanksgiving in your heart toward Christ?  My friend, I call you to remembrance!  Remember your sin before a Holy and Righteous God. Remember the times you unwittingly and wittingly broke his commands. The Lamb, Jesus Christ, died for your sins.  O praise Him! Thank Him! Stand in awe of the Lamb of God. It is by looking to our Savior that we can be delivered from the penalty of sin and the practice of sin.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” May God richly bless you as you look unto Jesus as the Lamb of God this coming Thanksgiving season!

With love and prayer, Pastor Mark

Selected Bible Verses about the Lamb of God

The Lamb of God

Genesis 22:8, “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”

John 1:36, “And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”

I Peter 1:18-21, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

Acts 8:30-35, “And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

Revelation 21:22, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”

Revelation 21:23, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Revelation 22:1, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Revelation 22:3, “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.”

 

Lessons from the Old Testament

Sunday night’s  message was convicting concerning our neglect to set aside a day to worship God.  Pastor Mark preached on applying the principle of a Sabbath Rest in our present lives as New Testament believers.

Sermon Title:  The Lesson of a Sabbath Rest – Click on title to download for a listen!

Text: Exodus 20:8; Exodus 31:12-18; Isaiah 58:13-14

Do You Have the Hope of Eternal Life?

Our Scripture reading this morning was from Titus 3:1-7; do you have the hope of Eternal life?

“1 ¶ Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Pastor Mark preached from Matthew 19:16-26 on eternal life.   Let us know if we can be of help to you in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ!

Sunday, October 18th Sermons

Morning Sermon-  Title: The Blessing of Children Text: Matthew 19:13-15

Evening Sermon- Title:  Lessons from the Ten Commandments Text: Exodus 20

Mini-Series on Marriage from Matthew 19:1-12

The response from these messages have been encouraging.  I have tried to preach the truth from Matthew 9:1-12  in love and compassion.  One dear lady said after sermon two, “Pastor, I almost did not come to church today because I knew you would be preaching on the divorce passage.  But boy am I glad I came; you preached a message of encouragement and hope even for us who have been divorced.”  Praise God! It is only by His grace!

Sermon one: The Foundation of Marriage. Matthew 19:1-6

Sermon two:  The Enemy of Marriage. Matthew 19:7-9

Sermon three: The Alternative to Marriage. Matthew 19:10-12

You can down load the messages by clicking on the titles. Please feel free to share these messages  with others  if they have been a help to you.

Special Service with Stone Creek Bible Church

Sunday Evening September 27th, Pastor Rick Hammond and the congregation of Stone Creek Bible Church joined us for a glorious evening of worship, preaching, and a fellowship meal. Brother Rick challenged us to see God’s miraculous hand in our lives today, to pray and trust God, and to be more faithful to give the blessed gospel of Christ to those who need to repent before it is to late. The message was from Acts chapter 9 and was a challenging blessing. Please join us in praying for revival in Dillon, Montana. You can down load the message for a listen by clicking on the following link:
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2260128

October Pastor’s Chat — Created for God’s Pleasure

Created for God’s Pleasure

I hope that this year’s theme, “God is Worthy!” has challenged you to think more about our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. To help us in this endeavor we have been focusing on Revelation 5:12 which says, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” God is all this in superlative abundance. He is our supreme authority. He has all riches. He is all wisdom. He is all powerful. He is all honorable and glorious. He is worthy to be praised, worship, and reverenced.

The amazing thing is that when God created mankind in His own likeness, He gave us a measure of His authority, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, and glory. All these blessings and gifts are entrusted to us and come from God. Therefore, we must conclude that God is worthy of everything in our lives. Our God is worthy to receive them back from us in the form of thanksgiving, praise, and the dedication of our lives to Him. He created us for His pleasure (Revelation 4:12).

The fact that God created us for His pleasure might seem a little odd to us until we realize that there is not one speck of selfishness in God. His pleasure is always right. He is kind and loving, pure and holy. In His pleasure we will truly experience the pleasures for which He created us. The paradox of life is that when we selfishly seek pleasure for ourselves, it is only for a sinful season (Hebrews 11:24-25); but when we seek to bring pleasure to God by loving and obeying Him, we experience pleasure in Him for eternity. This is related to what Jesus was saying in Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” What are you doing with your life?

With love and prayers, Pastor Mark