We His People - We Believe

We His People - We Believe

Dave Riddle - 9/3/2023

Key Passage: John 3:14-16

You may have heard “Hope is not a strategy”

• There is some truth to that popular saying.

• But hope IS an essential part of our faith.

• 1 Corinthians 13:13

• Hebrews 11:1-3

• Romans 15:13

We Believe

• We are people of faith.

• John 3:14-16

• Ephesians 2:8-9

• Saved by faith though grace.

• Romans 5:1-2

• Faith and hope

We often struggle to live by faith

• So often, we walk by what we see, know, and feel, rather than walking by faith.

• Galatians 2:20

• 2 Corinthians 5:7

• walk = peripateo (Greek: περιπατέω) literally: to tread all around, walk at large. Figuratively: to live, to make one’s way, to regulate one’s life, to conduct oneself

• Are you living in a manner consistent with your confident belief in God’s promises?

• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

• We do not focus on what is seen!

On what our whom do you set your eyes?

• What/who are you chasing?

• Are we people who live by faith?

• Romans 8:24-25

The Canaanite Woman’s Faith 

• Matthew 15:21-28

• Great faith is powerful

The Disciples failure to heal

• Matthew 17:14-21

• Little faith is powerful

The Fiery Furnace

• Daniel 3

• We have faith even if God doesn’t answer our prayers.

• We have faith even in death.

Do you believe?

• John 11:25-26

Why Was Jesus Crucified?

Why Was Jesus Crucified? 

Dave Riddle - 3/26/2023

Key Passage: John 19:17-27

The Place

• Golgotha (19:17)

• An intimidating location

• “If you cross us, we cross you”

The Proclamation

• “The King of The Jews” (19:19)

• Pilate was trying to be antagonistic, but he inadvertently stumbled on the truth.

• See also Caiaphus in John 11:50

The Prophecy 

• Dividing his clothes, casting lots. (19:23-24)

• Fulfillment of Psalm 22

The Provision

• Providing for his mom (19:25-27)

• Here is your mother. Here is your son.

• Providing for the criminal on the cross (Luke 23:39-43)

• Providing salvation for us

• John 12:32 - As for Me, if I am  lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself.

The Person

• No one takes my life from me, I lay it down on my own. John 10:18

• He willingly laid down his own life.

The Point

• Redemption and Adoption!

• Galatians 4:4-5

• He bears so much love for us. A love that isn’t just spoken, but is demonstrated in the most powerful way.

• Are you part of those that have been redeemed, or are you not?

• Are you a child of the King, or are you not?

Three Responses To The Presence of Jesus

Three Responses To The Presence of Jesus

Dave Riddle - 2/5/2023

Key Passage: John 12:1-11

The authorities want to arrest Jesus

• John 11:49-57

  • Jesus is wanted

  • He retreats to the wilderness

  • As Passover arrives, everyone is looking for Jesus to arrest him.

A Feast in Jesus’ Honor

• John 12:1-3

  • Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are there.

Martha - Practical Service

• John 12:2

• Martha is serving, as always.

  • This time she is serving without complaining. The serving wasn’t the problem. Her heart was.

Lazarus - Practicing His Presence

• John 12:2

• Lazarus is reclining at the table, enjoying the presence of Jesus.

  • Brother Lawrence: Practicing the presence of God.

  • Speechless and awed to just be alive.

Mary - Extravagant Acts of Humility and Devotion 

• John 12:3

• Mary shows complete and total devotion and humility.

  • It would be typical to anoint someone’s head. Incredibly unique and extraordinary to anoint someone’s feet with such an expensive product

  • Highly remarkable for a Jewish woman to let her hair down in public.

Each of these reactions are appropriate and good 

• At different times in our lives we are called to respond to Jesus in different ways.

  • We are called to respond to Jesus in each of these three ways.

Lazarus & Jesus

Sunday Service 11/21/21 : JOHN—Raising of Lazarus
Phil Woodman
Key Passage: John 11

Jesus Waited

• John Mark Comer said “Hurry is violence on the soul. We get sucked into the tyranny of the urgent, not the important.”

  • Going going going doesn’t allow our soul to breathe. Do you feel that? Especially as we approach the holidays. The pace of everything picks up doesn’t it?

  • Maybe before jumping into anything, the best thing we could do would be to stop, seek our Father in heaven and be filled by the Spirit to prepare ourselves for what’s ahead of us whether it be a crisis, a busy season, or simply the day ahead of us so that we can function out of the fullness of God, rather than depending on the strength of man.

  • That is not the point of the story, but something we would probably benefit greatly from if we put it into practice.

  • There was purpose to Jesus waiting. So that God would be glorified.

Martha Believed

• She knew, she believed…but Lazarus’ death was still final in her mind.

• Which is a little interesting because Jesus had already raised someone from the dead….twice! But both of these times, the person was still in their home and had been dead for a few minutes or hours. Like they might not be fully dead. And Mary and Martha had not been present for those occurrences. I’m sure they probably heard about them, but they took place in Galilee far from their home.

Jesus Was Deeply Moved

• We see the humanity and emotional side of Jesus on display in this passage. We hear of his deep love for his friend that leads him into certain danger to visit. We see mourning and sadness as Jesus weeps, but he is ultimately led to anger.

• B.B. Warfield writes: “It is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death, and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill his eyes, but this is incidental. His soul is held by rage: and he advances to the tomb, in Calvin’s words, [slide] ‘as a champion who prepares for conflict.’”

• Where have you put him? Let’s go.

Mary and Martha Believed in a New Way

• Death is the physical result of what sin does in the spiritual realm. God grieves and mourns those who are spiritually dead. And just days later he would do something about it to show his power over death and sin once and for all.

• Do you KNOW Jesus as the resurrection and the life? Can you clearly state how Jesus has made you alive and transformed you from death to life? How is God making you new each day? If you can’t see how Jesus has changed you, is it possible that you know Jesus, but you don’t KNOW Jesus? Like Mary and Martha, your faith may be sincere, but limited.

• In this season of thanks, what are we, what are you doing to proclaim the life we have experienced in Christ to those needing resurrection from the spiritual death they live in? It moved Jesus to tears and made him angry to the point he needed to do something about it. May God move in our hearts that we are lead to DO something to help people experience Jesus and have the opportunity to move from death to life.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. I pray you KNOW that and have experienced that life.