Can you imagine what Heaven will be like? In Heaven, we will truly experience Abundant Life!
One of the celebrations that we presumably will experience in Heaven is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19 says, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Join us Sunday as we close out our Abundant Life sermon series by looking forward to the day we will celebrate with the Lord in Heaven.
As we continue our summer series on the "Abundant Life," we will turn our attention to two events in the New Testament that remind us of God's purpose and how we are to live this abundant life. The first is Christ's birth--yes, we will be talking about Christmas in July!
This Sunday we end with the final Feast set forth in the Old Testament--the Feast of Tabernacle or Booths! We will see how beautiful this appointed time was set in place to rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days
This Sunday, we will continue to look at the Old Testament feasts by exploring the Day of Atonement, also known as Yom Kippur. This is a day where the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the sins of the entire nation of Israel. The Day of Atonement was a time devoted to repentance and turning back to God. When Jesus died on the cross, Matthew tells us that at the moment that Jesus died, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Jesus's death was a fulfillment of the day of atonement; Jesus became our high priest and paid the price for our sins. Join us Sunday as we celebrate the redemption of our sins through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
This Sunday, we will look at the Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah. This festival is unlike the ones we studied previously; those festivals look back at a certain event in history. The Feast of Trumpets looks forward . . . way forward to the coming of the King, the coming of Jesus.
What we will discover is that within this celebration is a call to repentance, a call to prepare for the arrival of Jesus. I'm reminded of what Jesus says in Revelation 22:12, “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done."
Join us Sunday as we unpack the meaning of the trumpets and remind ourselves to be ready at a moment's notice for that last trumpet call of God.
Have you ever wondered about the significance and the implication of Pentecost? And what does Pentecost have to do with Jesus?
First, the Feast of Pentecost was established by God as a celebration to commemorate the moment that the people of Israel became the people of God. Fifty days after leaving Egypt, God met with the people of Israel at the base of Mt. Sinai and gave them the law of the covenant. This Sunday, we will unpack the significance of God not only meeting with His people, but exactly 50 days after Jesus' death on the cross, how God would dwell with us via the Holy Spirit. What an incredible gift God has given to us!
Join us Sunday as we focus on the significance and implications of God dwelling within us.
This Sunday, we will continue in our series on how the Jewish feasts point directly to Jesus. We will highlight the Feast of First Fruits. This particular feast served as a reminder to the Israelites of God’s provision in the Promised Land. It commemorates the manna that God provided and how their clothes were not tattered nor did their sandals wear out.
The Lord provided thoroughly for His people. In the same way, the Lord has provided a way for our sins to be paid in full and a way for us to live with Him forever by sending His Son Jesus. Join us Sunday as we look at how this festival is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ.
This past Sunday we unpacked the meaning of Passover and how it pointed to Jesus; this Sunday we will highlight the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins the day after Passover and lasts for 7 days. This feast commemorates the morning after the death angel had passed over the Israelite houses, and how the Israelite women carried unleavened bread dough with their kneading bowls on their shoulders as they left Egypt.
In preparation for this feast, the Jewish people are instructed to clean their homes and remove all yeast (leaven) from their homes, because leaven in the scriptures represents sin. In a similar fashion it was on preparation day that Jesus entered the Temple and knocked over tables and cleansed the Temple of the money-changers and declared, "My Temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves!" (Matthew 21:12-13). So join us this Sunday as we discover how we can live abundantly by cleansing our lives from everything that is unclean so that we might draw close to the Lord.
Did you know God told the Israelites to remember certain events and miracles by having a party? I might even go so far to say that one of the reasons we love a good party is because our creator, God, loves a good party! So, if you’ve ever thought that God was some “cosmic party-pooper,” then you couldn’t be more wrong. God wants us to get together and celebrate Him and live . . . an Abundant Life! In John 10:10, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” God wants us to have a blast in this life, to live this life abundantly!