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First Alliance Church Weekly Sermons
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Monday Dec 14, 2020
Monday Dec 14, 2020
Advent 2021: Fearless Joy
Luke 2:1-14
Nothing threatens our joy like fear. Sadly, we live in a time when fears not only multiply like rabbits, but these rabbits are bigger than elephants. Fortunately for us, Advent tell us that we can have a joy which is stronger than all of our fears. How can we keep fear from spoiling our joy?
I First, fear cannot keep us from practicing joy if we truly believe that m______________ and t______________ are not necessary for joy (Luke 2:1-5).
A. If we seek desirable things as the way to bring joy to our life, that can only mean that joy d_________________ on material things.
B. Is the joy God gave to us at Christmas dependent on our ability to buy nice things for ourselves and our family? If that is true, then our joy can never be s_______________.
II Second, fear cannot keep us from practicing joy if our heart is open to s_________________ (Luke 2:6-7)
A. The Israelites knew how hard the life of an alien or stranger could be, and since God met their needs in Egypt, out of g___________________ to God, they must meet the needs of others.
B. If we are offended by Jesus as a homeless man sleeping on a park bench, how offended are we by Jesus being born in a b________ where the smell of m______________ fills the air?
III Every Advent we talk about how d_________________ the shepherds were in the society of their day (Luke 2:8-12).
A. They were despised for several reasons:
1. Their close confinement with animals made them literally and religiously u____________________.
2. Their itinerant lifestyle, moving with the sheep from one pasture to another, made people s__________________ of them.
3. Their uncleanness and itinerant lifestyle meant they were never at the Temple or the Synagogue, and so people saw them as i______________________.
B. The angel said this “good news of great joy” is for “all people,” which means that if we e______________ anyone, then it is no longer good news.
C. This brings us to the third truth Luke teaches us: fear cannot keep us from experiencing joy if our hearts are o________________ to the people of the world.
IV Finally, fear cannot keep us from experiencing joy if we rely on grace rather than our p_________________________ (Luke 2:13-14).
A. The Kingdom of evil promotes the lie that a relationship with God is only for those who can m_______________ u________ to God’s perfect standards.
B. Relying on God’s favor r____________ o__________ our performance.
C. When God’s one and only Son was born in Bethlehem, the whole purpose was to provide p_________________ for condemned people.
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Advent 2021: Bringing Peace
Luke 1:46-55
If there is one word that usually always finds its way into our understanding of the Christmas story, that word is peace. Whether the observer is Christian or non-Christian, people cannot go very long in discussing the meaning of Christmas without bringing up this word. Of course, we often have very different understandings of what this peace actually consists. Fortunately for us, the second most important character in the Christmas story had a clear vision of this peace and she is going to share it with us today. What exactly is this peace that the Christ child gives?
I First, the peace this child will bring is p_____________________ peace.
A. Mary says, “My very life, my spirit, the d______________ part of me, the e__________________ of who I am, glorifies God for what he has done for me.”
B. Mary, throughout her life, was treated as a nothing, and that is no exaggeration:
1. First, she was an u_______________ teenage girl.
2. Second, she was dirt-_____________.
3. Third, she was a citizen of an e__________________ nation.
C. Mary says, “God did not call me to be an i____________________ for his child, not a means to an end. To him I am a v_________________ person.
II Second, this peace is s___________________. Peace has to do with how we t____________ each other in this world.
A. First, she says, “He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.” This is a s_____________________ revolution.
B. Second, Mary says, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” This is a p____________________ revolution.
C. Third, Mary says, “He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.” This is an e____________________________ revolution.
1. Some believe that all this attention which Jesus and Luke give to the poor is not about p_______________ poverty; it is about s__________________ poverty.
a. First, Jesus does not say, “Blessed are you who are poor spiritually.” He says, “Blessed are you p_______________.”
b. Second, remember that most of the people in Israel in Jesus’ day were l______________ poor; they had very, very little to eat.
-So, if the good news Jesus had for these physically poor people was limited to spiritual bread, then Jesus was being horribly c___________.
2. Some think that what Mary is talking about here refers to the s______________ coming of Jesus.
a. But how odd that Mary would praise God for the second coming of her son b______________ she has even experienced his first coming.
B. Second, Mary does not speak in the f_____________ tense in these verses.
3. What began with the birth of Jesus has obviously not yet been c_____________________.
-Which means that while we look forward to the second coming when all the hungry will be filled and every wrong will be made right, we cannot simply sit back and w______________ for Jesus to do it a_________.
III Third, this peace is s_____________________.
-How does God show mercy “to Abraham and his descendants forever?” By placing Jesus in the w_____________ of Mary. In other words, by sending a S___________________.
Monday Nov 30, 2020
Monday Nov 30, 2020
Advent 2021: Holding on to Hope
Luke 1:26-45
I (Luke 1:26) “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”
First, we need to be _________ to God’s message of hope.
A. Luke doesn’t say Mary was troubled because an angel spoke to her; what troubled her was the _______________. Nevertheless, she was open to ___________ the message.
B. That is why when Medieval artists portrayed the Holy Spirit coming to Mary to enable her to conceive the Messiah, they pictured the Holy Spirit, as a dove, entering Mary through her ___________________.
John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
II (1:30) “But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’”
Second, we need a ______________ from God.
A. Gabriel doesn’t say, “Mary, you are highly ____________________. He says, “You are graciously ________________.”
B. The message of Christmas is that the gift given to Mary has also been given to ______.
(Colossians 1:27) “It is Christ in you that is your hope of glory.”
(Galatians 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
III (1:34) “’How will this be’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’”
Third, we need something to believe in which is _________________ ourselves.
A. People have a hard time with the virgin birth, but their doubt is m__________________ because virgin birth is nothing compared to i________________________.
B. If Mary had been told that she and her husband Joseph were going to have a child who would be Israel’s Savior, then they would have been forced to believe in ___________________________.
C. There would have been no hope in that message, but only s______________, and w________________, and feelings of i_____________________________.
“‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God…. For nothing is impossible with God.’”
IV (1:38) “’I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.”
Fourth, we need a willingness to __________________.
A. Jesus said in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve….” Like s_________, like m_____________.
B. Selfish desires have ________ power when life seems hopeless, which means hopelessness keeps selfishness in check. For this reason, God cannot take away our hopelessness until we are willing to a_______________ our selfish way of living.
V (1:39-45) “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.’”
Fifth, we need h___________________.
A. Mary took the favor God had poured out on her and she did not h________________ it, she poured it out on o______________.
B. Mary was the most favored woman in human history, but she played the part of a w_________________ servant, and that is humility.
VI Would you like to hold on to hope while our world is being severely tested? Mary shows us how:
(1) We must be ___________ to hope.
(2) We need to understand that hope is __________ something we can create.
(3) We must see that hope is a ___________ and we must receive that gift through _____________.
(4&5) To keep us from becoming proud and self-centered, we need to receive hope as _________________ and we must practice ________________.
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
After 2020 Can We Look to 2021 with Hope?
Romans 8:18-30
I In Romans 8:18-30 Paul gives us ___________ reasons why we should face the coming year with hope.
II First, we ought to hope because only hope can help us see our disappointments in the _________________ way.
(8:18) “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
A. What does Paul mean?
1. First, suffering p________________ us for the glory which lies ahead.
(1Peter 1:6-7) “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
2. Second, suffering helps us to see things as they ____________ are.
(2 Corinthians 4:17-18) “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
B. Paul reminds us that for a Christian there is far more happening in our lives than what we can _______________.
III Second, we ought to hope because God has built hope into his entire _________________.
(8:19-23) “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly and as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
(Genesis 3:17) “Because of your sin, cursed is the ground because of you.”
A. The effect of the physical creation being cursed is that nature is now _____________ _________________.
B. Because the physical world is c__________________ to us, it too is seeking what we are seeking: It wants God to make things ______________.
(Revelation 21:1) “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
IV Third, we ought to hope because our hope does not depend on what we can see with our p_______________ e_________.
(8:24-25) “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
A. Pastor Jennifer Bliss-Criswell (Worship Report)
B. Paul and Nancy Gieschen (Discovery Class Report)
C. Margaret Goins (ESL Report and Children’s and Youth Report)
V Fourth, we ought to hope because the one who makes hope possible is the ______________ ______________ who lives within us.
(8:26-27) “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
VI Finally, we ought to hope because for the Christian, hope is never a __________________.
(8:28-30) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
VII We have hope as a church because a church is made up of people who know _______________ and everyone who knows __________________ has hope.
Hebrews 6:19 “We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
God’s Perfect Will and Our Imperfect Choices: Election 2020
1 Samuel 12
I Romans 13:1 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”
-What Paul is saying in Romans 13 is that God did not design human life to be lived in a_________________ where everyone does as s/he sees fit.
-So, the big question is not what if the wrong candidate wins, but what if our fellow-voters do something _______________ and make a terrible choice.
II In 1 Samuel 12 we see the Prophet Samuel dealing with the very same issue that haunts many Christians around ______________ time.
-Israel chose to elect a leader contrary to God’s choice and we see, much to our surprise, that God _______________ it.
III What did Samuel know about God’s will and our choices? First, God has given us the power to make real choices: the power to make ____________ choices and the power to make ____________ choices.
(12:1) “Samuel said to all Israel, ‘I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day. Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these, I will make it right.”
A. Israel wanted to replace Samuel with Saul and they thought they had __________ reasons.
1. “You’re too ___________! We need a ____________ ruler.
2. “Your sons do not ___________ in your ways.”
B. Samuel has heard the campaign adds _______________ him and on this occasion he takes the time to answer his critics.
1. He admits he’s old, but that also means what? He has e__________________.
2. Samuel turns to his immoral sons and he responds in a very s_____________ way to the charge that he would make them his successors.
-(12:2) He says, “I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you.” They are not standing with Samuel in the place of the l____________, but with the people, who are the f______________.
3. But in verse 3 he gets to the real point: they weren’t replacing his sons; they were replacing __________.
(12:3) “Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed.”
(12:4) “You have not cheated or oppressed us,’ they replied. ‘You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.’”
4. Worse yet, they were not replacing Samuel – he was only the spokesman for the real ruler of Israel. Who were they replacing? ______________
IV The second thing Samuel knew about God’s will and our choices: Wrong choices can c_________ us dearly.
A. In verses 6-11 Samuel gives them a history lesson and it’s in two parts:
1. First, he reminds them of all the _____________ things God did for them.
2. Second, he reminds them how they _________________ God.
(12:9) “They forgot the Lord their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the King of Moab, who fought against them.”
B. Samuel reminds them that after they forgot the Lord there came a time when they realized that they had done _____________.
(12:10) “They cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, we have forsaken the Lord…. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.”
C. Mercy can restore our relationship with God, but mercy oftentimes cannot ____________ all the consequences of our bad choices.
V The third thing Samuel knew about God’s will and our choices is sobering: God will even allow us to make choices that amount to a r________________ of him.
(8:20) “We want a King to go out before us and fight our battles.”
A. They weren’t only asking for a replacement for Samuel, they were asking for a replacement for __________, and the reason why is obvious.
-They have decided that if they can turn to a king for help, there will be no need for them to ______________ of their sins and obey God.
B. If we vote, hoping for some person to rescue us, God will say, “Okay, I am going to let you have all the j___________, p_____________, and p___________ a human being can provide.”
VI The fourth thing Samuel knew about God’s will and our choices: No matter how many wrong choices we make, God’s Word and God’s Kingdom will never ______________.
(12:14) “If you serve the Lord and fear and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – Good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”
(12:20) “‘Do not be afraid,’ Samuel replied. ‘You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.”
VII Samuel knew, and we need to know, that no matter how many wrong choices we have made, God’s desire to r____________ and give l_________ will never fail.
A. But Samuel also understood that God’s ____________ will never fail.
(12:23) “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”
B. Praying for people, teaching God’s Word, and warning them – This is also the work Jesus has given his ______________ to do.
C. No matter who is elected November 3, God has already called us to a _______________ office: he has elected us to pray, to teach, and to warn.
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Pastor Kevin Goins, Chris Gill, Stephane and Travoris McKissick and Susan Bliss
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Recognizing the Unity of the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
I (11:23) “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you….”
Paul uses these technical terms because he wants the Corinthians to know he did not make this up. It did not originate with him. But this account of the Lord’s Supper was passed on to him o_______________, probably by the A_________________.
II Then Paul says (11:23) “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread ….”
That word “betrayed” speaks volumes. First, it reinforces what we said about the historical r___________________ of Paul’s account.
III There is something else about this betrayal: We cannot overlook the fact that at the very moment when Jesus was using the Lord’s Supper to explain the meaning of his death,* that was also the very moment _______________ chose to betray Jesus.
By trying to take God’s throne then, and by trying to take God’s place or rulership in our life now, we show that we are b_______________________ like Judas.
(11:23-26) “Jesus … took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
IV Last, it is significant that Paul says that the Lord’s Supper was established on the night Judas betrayed Jesus, because Paul has been making the point, in the verses surrounding our text, that the way the Corinthians have been celebrating the Lord’s Supper amounts to a betrayal of ___________________.
The Corinthians celebrated the Lord’s Supper in a way that d_________________ the church.
(11:20) “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!”
(11:29) “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
V I am reading a book by Robert P. Jones entitled White Too Long, and the thesis is that for too long American Christianity has been just as much about being ____________ as it has been about being ____________________.
This book has shattered some of the things I believed for many years about white evangelical Christianity. I want to share three of these:
A. First, I assumed all my life that while the church may have t___________________ slavery, it was not actually in s_______________ of slavery. Then I found out that the Southern Baptist Church, the largest group of evangelicals in the U.S., came into existence in order to defend slave _______________.
Basil Manly Sr., who convinced Southern Baptists to separate from Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery, and, who thereby created the SBC, was recognized as the leading ________________ defender of slavery.
Genesis 4:15 “Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”
B. Second, I always thought that while the church may have tolerated slavery, at least Christian masters treated their slaves with m_________ dignity and humaneness.
C. Third, I always thought that the reason most African-Americans attended their own churches was because they did not like ________ we did church.
VI Here is my final point: With all that white Christians have done over the last 250 years to arouse in African-Americans a hatred for the Christian faith,* it is nothing less than a miracle that, according to the Pew Research Center, ________% of African-Americans identify themselves as Christians today.
That is dramatic proof that people do not become Christians because of people who call themselves Christians. They become Christians because of ___________.
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Monday Oct 05, 2020
“Only Two Ways”
Proverbs 4:10-17 (Part two)
American Democracy is founded on the idea that we can make our way in life howsoever we desire. But exactly how many ways are there to go in this life? Solomon has an answer to that question in our text
I In the next four verses Solomon tells his son about four things that walking the way of wisdom will do for us.
A. First, walking the way of wisdom will prolong our life (4:10).
B. Second, walking the way of wisdom will place us on a straight path (4:11).
C. Third, walking the way of wisdom will enable us to make forward progress (4:12).
D. Fourth, walking the way of wisdom ________________ our life (4:13).
1. There are _______ things we need to see about this word “instruction.”
a. First, Solomon uses this word as another name for ___________.
b. Second, by instruction Solomon means c__________________ or what we would call d_____________.
2. Pain teaches us things we never _________________, and the lessons we learn from pain help us avoid the things that can ___________ us.
II. As Solomon gave us four a________________ to walking the way of wisdom, he now gives four d_____________________ to walking the way of foolishness.
A. First, it leads us to i___________________ foolish people (4:14).
1. The Hebrew word translated “do not set foot” refers to the __________ instant when a person comes into a place – the moment of first contact.
2. The problem with first “setting foot on a path” is that it always leads to “______________” on that path.
3. When we are impressed by someone, we begin to i_____________ him or her in some way.
B. Second, it leads to something we must a______________ a____________ (4:15).
1. Some believers have the idea that once you decide to follow Jesus, all your f_____________ decisions are made _____ you.
2. When we walk the road of foolishness we lack the strength and guidance to actively avoid lots of ___________ roads throughout our life.
C. Third, it leads to s______________________ (4:16).
-What is so wrong with the way of foolishness? It is not only a horrible lifestyle filled with guilt and sleeplessness, but it is so e________________________.
D. Fourth, it leads to i___________________________ (4:17).
1. Bread and wine is a metaphor for f__________ and so Solomon is saying that those who walk the way of foolishness actually f__________ on evil.
2. Why is evil so attractive to us? We are entertained by evil characters in books and movies because evil is _____________ to our true nature than good.
Monday Oct 05, 2020
Monday Oct 05, 2020
“Only Two Ways”
Proverbs 4:10-17 (Part one)
American Democracy is founded on the idea that we can make our way in life howsoever we desire. But exactly how many ways are there to go in this life? Solomon has an answer to that question in our text
I Solomon says wisdom is not only a person to know, but wisdom is also a _____________ to ____________.
A. The first point Solomon makes about wisdom as the way is that there is no ___________ way.
B. The Second point Solomon makes about wisdom as the way is that life is a _________________.
II In the next ___________ verses Solomon tells his son about __________ things that walking the way of wisdom will do for us.
A. First, walking the way of wisdom will _________________ your ____________ (4:10).
1. The focus of a life of wisdom is to know how to avoid the things that t____________ life and how to embrace the things that p______________ life.
2. We can’t just _________ our children how to avoid danger, we must _____________ them by the way we live our life.
B. Second, walking the way of wisdom will place us on a s_______________ path (4:11).
1. The word translated “guide” is the Hebrew verb from which we get the noun ___________, which is the ________ of ________.
2. With this word “guide,” Solomon makes it clear that he is not talking about ___________ wisdom or the kind that comes with _____________________.
The wisdom he is giving us is a wisdom that comes from ______________ _____________.
3. The Hebrew word translated “straight” is never used in the Old Testament to refer to something ________________ straight.
This word is always used to refer to m_______________ c________________________.
C. Third, walking the way of wisdom will enable us to make f_______________ p________________ (4:12).
1. His reference to walking and running is interesting for two reasons:
a. First, because it reminds us of that famous verse in __________ chapter _________.
b. Second, his reference to walking and running is also interesting because it seems to be a reference to the _______ major _____________ of life.
2. The old walk and the young run, but both can be kept from making progress by o__________________ in their way.
But wisdom can enable us to _______ and __________ the obstacles.