Sunday, February 28, 2016

Sermon Notes from the Follow Me series. 13 Reason to Follow Jesus.

Revelation 1:1-8
Follow Me—Why Should I Follow Jesus?
February 14, 2016

There are some pretty serious questions that I have faced in my life, but looking back there was one question that topped them all: Why Should I Follow Jesus? Not only have I asked that question, but I’ve had people ask it of me. Our text today gives us some pretty good answers to that question. READ TEXT

John begins this book of the apocalypse with the words “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” In the end Jesus is the subject matter of the entire book. It reveals to the reader the holy judgment of God the Son against the sin of the world. It also reveals to us His great compassion toward His bride.

  1. Jesus is the giver of grace and peace. v. 4  Eph. 2:8-10, John 14:27
  2. Jesus is eternal. v. 4 He “was and is and is to come.” John 1, Matt. 1:2
  3. Jesus is King. v.4 He is on the eternal throne of God, and He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Phil. 2
  4. Jesus is the faithful witness. v. 5 Heb. 6:18 says, “It is impossible for God to lie.” 78 times Jesus said, “I tell you the truth.” 2 times in John 3:1-7 (the beginning of the story of Nicodemus.).
  5. Jesus was once dead but now is alive. v. 5 I Cor. 15:1-23 There were a few people whom had been raised from the dead before the resurrection of Jesus, but all of those people would die again. Jesus died, was buried, and three days later He arose never to taste death again!
  6. Jesus loves you. v. 5 Multiple times the Scriptures tell us that Jesus wept. These circumstances were often centered around people whom Jesus loved. Jesus wept when Lazarus died, after He had talked with Mary and Martha. Jesus also wept as He stood on the hills outside of Jerusalem looking down on the city. Jesus also wept as He looked at a crowd one day “wandering aimlessly like sheep without a shepherd.” John 15:13-14 state, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
  7. Jesus set us free from our sin by His blood. v. 5 Someone once asked, “How much do you love me Jesus?” He answered, “This much,” and He stretched out His hands as they nailed them to the cross.
    1. Humanity rejected Him in the garden. Gen. 3 
    2. Humanity rejected Him in Jerusalem and crucified Him. Luke 23:15b-23
    3. Humanity continues to reject Him, but He loves us anyway.
  8. Jesus made us a kingdom. v. 6 He has made us part of His kingdom. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He will rule and reign, and having been adopted into His family through His blood we have been made joint heirs with Jesus. Rom. 8:15-19
  9. Jesus made us priests to God the Father. v. 6
    1. Priests were ordained by God and called to service out of a specific group of people, the tribe of Levi. If you were not a dependent of Levi, like Moses and Aaron (Ex. 2:1), you could not serve as a priest. You could not work in the Temple. You could not even care the articles in the Tabernacle as the Israelites moved from place to place. For almost two thousand years that’s the way it was.
    2. When Jesus died on the cross, Matthew 27:51 tells us that God ripped the curtain in the Temple from top to bottom fully exposing the place where God dwelt among the people. He opened up the place of His presence, where once only the High Priest could enter. No all are allowed into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies because of the acceptable sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. I Peter 2:9-12

  1. Jesus is worthy of all glory and dominion. v. 6
    1. The word worthy means “good and deserving respect, praise, or attention. having enough good qualities to be considered important, useful, etc…” Jesus is all of that  that Webster had to say and so much more.
    2. In the Greek the word glory is the “doxa” and “doxa” also means praise, worship, splendor, and kingly majesty. Rev. 5:13; Is. 6:1-4; Rev. 1:17  The word translated dominion in our verse means “force, strength, power, might, mighty with great power.” Matt. 28:18 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth, go therefore…”
  2. Jesus is coming again and everyone will see it. v. 7 Everyone won’t be glad about it when He comes. 
    1. Matt. 24:30 tells us that those who see Jesus at His coming will mourn. That is the same Greek word in v. 7 that is translated “wail.” But understand that word does not mean repent. They will experience great grief but will not humble themselves willingly before the Lord Jesus seeking forgiveness and mercy.

  1. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end. v. 8 Heb. 12:1-2 
    1. He is the author and finisher (completer) of our salvation. He is the author and finisher of creation. He is the author and completer of you.

  1. Jesus is the Almighty. v. 8

The world is constantly asking, as they reject Him, “Why should I follow Jesus?” So many in the church are, seemingly, asking the same question, “Why should I follow Jesus.?” When it comes down to it, the most simple and yet profound answer given in Scripture is summed up in v. 8. You should follow Him because He is God. 


Every Sunday during the beginning of this series “Follow Me” we have concluded the service with the question, “Will you follow Him?” Today is no different. “Will you follow Him?” I don’t know specifically what that might mean for you, but I do know that God will work a change in you from the inside out if you will humble yourself and follow Him. He will accept you and save you, forgive you and cleanse you, just like you are, but He will not leave you the same. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Weekly Update 2-12-16

I am thoroughly enjoying preparing each week for our current series “Follow Me.” Matthew 4:19 is at the forefront of my mind each week, and I am learning so much as I approach each week from the perspective of Jesus calling us to follow Him. As we continue looking at Revelation 1:1-8 I will be focusing on the end of verse 5 and verse 6. These verses are absolutely loaded with encouragement and transformational truths! I pray you are preparing your heart and mind to receive ALL that God the Holy Spirit has for you this coming Sunday. I believe we are going to have an amazing time of worship together. Come prayed up and prepared. I want to encourage you to prayerfully invite someone to come with you to church this weekend or next weekend. Step out in faith in this area of your life and see God move. God wants to use you and your family to alter someone’s eternity, and I pray you will allow Him to do what He desires to do through you. He wants to minister to someone through you; He has chosen you for that exact purpose.

Easter is coming up on March 27. We will be hosting the sunrise service at Camp Barnhardt. The service will begin at 6:45am. We will serve breakfast at the church following the sunrise service. I want to make Easter Sunday a high attendance day for our church for both Life Groups and worship. I am setting the goal of 250 in Life Groups and 350 for worship. We will have one service on Easter Sunday with Life Groups meeting at 9am and worship at 10:15am. I want to encourage you to begin working on your guest list. Let’s pack the place out and see what God will do. I want to encourage you to invite your lost friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors for this special day. Invite them to church and maybe out for lunch. Offer to give them a ride to church. Take a leap of faith. God will honor it!

I also want to make you aware that after much prayer and after talking with the deacons we are going to make a change in our Sunday morning schedule from now through the end of August. We will be moving to a schedule with Life Groups at 9am and worship at 10:15am. There are several reason for making this decision, and two of those reasons are needs within the children’s ministry concerning volunteers and the strain that two services is placing on our music ministry volunteers right now. As we move into the fall of 2016 and praying that we will have a new minister of music in place, we will move back to two services after Labor Day in September. Please help us spread the word about these changes to our schedule. Thank you in advance for your help, prayers, and support as we continue moving forward as God is leading us. The first Sunday for the new schedule will be Sunday February 21, 2016.

I also want to let you know that the personnel committee and I are making great strides in our search for both staff positions. We hope to have some great news in the coming few weeks. Please pray that the Lord Jesus continues to show us clearly His plans for our church concerning these ministry leaders for our church body. I am very excited as I have conversations with the search team and candidates. Praise the Lord!

Can’t wait to see you on Sunday. God bless you.

Pastor Mike

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Today's sermon notes. Follow Me series.

Revelation 1:1-8
Follow Me—Why Should I Follow Jesus?
February 7, 2016

There are some pretty serious questions that I have faced in my life, but looking back there was one question that topped them all: Why Should I Follow Jesus? Not only have I asked that question, but I’ve had people ask it of me. Our text today gives us some pretty good answers to that question. READ TEXT

John begins this book of the apocalypse with the words “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” In the end Jesus is the subject matter of the entire book. It reveals to the reader the holy judgment of God the Son against the sin of the world. It also reveals to us His great compassion toward His bride.

  1. Jesus is the giver of grace and peace. v. 4  Eph. 2:8-10, John 14:27
  2. Jesus is eternal. v. 4 He “was and is and is to come.” John 1, Matt. 1:2
  3. Jesus is King. v.4 He is on the eternal throne of God, and He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Phil. 2

  1. Jesus is the faithful witness. v. 5 Heb. 6:18 says, “It is impossible for God to lie.” 78 times Jesus said, “I tell you the truth.” 2 times in John 3:1-7 (the beginning of the story of Nicodemus.).

  1. Jesus was once dead but now is alive. v. 5 I Cor. 15:1-23 There were a few people whom had been raised from the dead before the resurrection of Jesus, but all of those people would die again. Jesus died, was buried, and three days later He arose never to taste death again!

  1. Jesus loves you. v. 5 Multiple times the Scriptures tell us that Jesus wept. These circumstances were often centered around people whom Jesus loved. Jesus wept when Lazarus died, after He had talked with Mary and Martha. Jesus also wept as He stood on the hills outside of Jerusalem looking down on the city. Jesus also wept as He looked at a crowd one day “wandering aimlessly like sheep without a shepherd.” John 15:13-14 state, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”


  1. Jesus set us free from our sin by His blood. v. 5
  2. Jesus made us a kingdom. v. 6
  3. Jesus made us priests to God the Father. v. 6
  4. Jesus is worthy of all glory and dominion. v. 6
  5. Jesus is coming again and everyone will see it. v. 7 Everyone won’t be glad about it when He comes.
  6. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end. v. 8
  7. Jesus is the Almighty. v. 8