Wawasee Bible Sermon Audio

Craig Clapper - Where to Find Rest: Part 2 Our guest speaker today is Craig Clapper. Matthew 11:28, 29 - 28 Then Jesus said: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Craig Clapper - Where to Find Rest Our guest speaker for this week is Craig Clapper. Jeremiah 6:16 - This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find Rest for your souls."

Craig Clapper Our walk through life can be made of many steps. Our walk with Jesus is not necessarily a walk in the park but, the destination is worth the journey. And because of that worthy destination, we have to walk worthy. We do that by walking as Jesus would and leaving our former self behind. We have to learn to walk in love and as a light as we see in Ephesians 5 by meeting the needs of others. By God's grace, we may be worn out by the end of our journey but, will be home with Jesus. This is the good news!

Kirk Barger Do you consider yourself a fan or a follower of Jesus? This Sunday, we examined what our focus is on. What do we look for? Focus on a complete commitment to Jesus rather than a casual company in our daily lives. Look for a fanatical faith rather than just a temporary filling food for the soul. That is what Jesus wants from us. You should be known by the results of this faith and the fruit that it produces! The intimate friendship that we can have with Jesus leaves us desiring more of Him. Are you a fan or follower?

Part 2 - SERIES: Pain During the new year, we continue our look at the pain that we all experience. Life can bring many questions. Questions such as: Why do the wicked prosper and why do the righteous suffer? Only God can answer these questions and only He can tell the future and what it holds for all of us. He has paid for our sins and when we put our trust in Him, our iniquities are covered with His righteousness! We must live by faith, not by sight and trust that our future and our portion is Jesus!

Part 1 - SERIES: Pain During the new year, we look at the pain that we experience. We experience this as a creation and on a personal level. This is because of the sinful nature of mankind. However, we have hope because we look forward to THAT DAY! We are children of God and all of creation has the hope of that day!

Part 5 – SERIES: Eternal Son At Christmas, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, the Eternal Son, as a vulnerable baby. But one day soon, Jesus will return—but this time in glory and power. He will come in power as the Hero, the Righteous Judge, the King of All Creation, and the Lord of Heaven. When he comes again, he will be coming to fix everything, restoring it to God’s original intent. Jesus will unveil a new creation, he will heal hearts and wipe away tears, he’ll do away with death and sorry and pain forevermore! His first coming at Christmas is an assurance of his second. These things will come to pass, mark it down!

Part 4 – SERIES: Eternal Son At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Eternal Son. Jesus is God’s word to us. We have a God who speaks to his people, and he does it clearly through Jesus. This is because Jesus himself is fully God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit as part of the Trinity. As deity Jesus is the initiator, eternal, owner of all things, creator of all signs, sustainer of all things, and is worthy of all praise! At Christmas Jesus became fully human in order that he might be our perfect mediator and save us.

Part 3 – SERIES: Eternal Son This Christmas season we’re looking at some of the descriptions of Jesus, the Eternal Son, who was born at Christmas—specifically some descriptions found in the New Testament letters. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:5-11 that we should live humbly, as Jesus lived. True humility is “to know your place”. We’re also shown that Jesus is the King of Glory! He’s fully God in every respect, and at Christmas Jesus added humanity to his deity, becoming fully human in every respect. As the King of Glory, It’s All About Jesus! — So we should confess him now of our own volition, because one day we will all confess him as Lord.

Part 2 – SERIES: Eternal Son As we head towards Christmas we're looking at different passages in the New Testament Letters that speak to who Jesus is. Many people know that on Christmas we celebrate Jesus' birth as a baby boy to Mary and Joseph, but few give thought to his existence before that, or to who exactly Jesus is. As we like to say at Wawasee Bible, it's ALL ABOUT JESUS! If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus, he's God. If you want to know who you are and who you're created to become, look at Jesus, he's the only one to ever live a perfect life. Jesus is the lord of all. The first over all creation. He's the creator of all things, the owner of all things, he's before all things, he's the sustainer of all things. Jesus is also first over the Church, he's the Senior Pastor. Jesus is the only one who is able to save us.

Part 1 – SERIES: Eternal Son As we head towards Christmas this year, we’re looking at different passages in the New Testament Letters that speak to who Jesus is. We begin with Galatians 4:1-7 where we see that God sends his Eternal Son. We were slaves, unable to save or redeem ourselves—but God sent Jesus to free us! At the right time Jesus was sent to become like us and make us like him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus didn’t just free us, he adopted us to be family. True sons and daughters with true and full family privileges.

Part 7 – SERIES: Life is Short As we wrap up our series in Ecclesiastes Solomon gives us his conclusion, “the end of the matter”. He says this, “Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.” The sooner you turn to Jesus the better—and not just with your head, but with your heart!

Part 6 – SERIES: Life is Short Life is full of seasons. Some are short, some long. Some are joyful, some are painful. Some are sweet, some are bitter. It’s important to know the season you’re in if you want to make wise decisions. Every season is being orchestrated by God in his sovereignty for his glory and our good. Because of this we can choose to enjoy life—even when we don’t know all of the details of what God is doing—and we can trust him.

Part 5 – SERIES: Life is Short Life is short and full of difficulty and frustration—much of which we have no control over. Solomon recognizes this and encourages us to “accept the way God does things” (Ecclesiastes 7:13). His sovereign will involves both and active hand and a permissive hand, whereby he works all things for his glory and our good. We’re not in control, but God is. The one thing we do have control over is how we respond. We have agency in our lives to choose our attitudes and responses. If we choose to sin we’re choosing to suffer. If we choose to obey Jesus we’re choosing blessing. This is very true for our attitudes. Rather than choosing sinful attitudes of complaining and criticism, we can and should choose an attitude of thankfulness!

Part 4 – SERIES: Life is Short Have you noticed that life isn’t fair? So did Solomon, and he recounts his conclusion multiple times in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. It all seems so unfair and meaningless. But in the midst of it, Solomon rightly concludes that God is still good. He commends us to work hard, fear Jesus, and enjoy the life God has graciously given us. Are you enjoying life? It may have more to do with your attitude and trust in Jesus than your circumstances.

Part 3 – SERIES: Life is Short As Solomon writes Ecclesiastes, he often circles around to the same themes over and over. The meaninglessness of life “under the sun”, the fleeting nature of life, even the ways that life is unfair. One theme that seems to get missed, though, is his commendation of choosing joy. On many occasions he concludes that life is short yet meant to be enjoyed. By God’s grace we have agency to choose our attitudes. To enjoy his good gifts. To enjoy Jesus. And to choose to be joyful!

Part 2 – SERIES: Life is Short Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has placed a longing for eternity in the heart of every person. We all know that there’s more than what we see “under the sun”, and so we long for it. In Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Solomon concludes again that every pursuit in this life under the sun is meaningless. Wisdom, pleasure, work—it’s all fleeting. Therefore we must “play the long game”. Enjoy life now, but live for and in light of eternity!

Part 1 – SERIES: Life is Short We begin a new series in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon is the wisest man (other than Jesus) to ever walk the face of the earth. His life includes great victories for God and great folly. Ecclesiastes is likely written at the end of his life as he looks back, examining life “under the sun” (this life on earth), and concluding that apart from Jesus all is meaningless. All is meaningless, he says, it’s a wearisome treadmill of futility—but not if your hope is in Jesus. So enjoy life and obey God’s commands.

Part 3 – SERIES: Vertical Way too often our primary day-to-day focus is horizontal, on the here and now. But we’re called to lift our heads, to keep our eyes on Jesus, to seek God’s glory, to get Vertical. The Word of God and the Gospel is contains must be our focus in preaching, in worship, and it is vital to saturate our lives with. We like to say "God Wrote it All Down", and we're to believe the Bible in all that it teaches, obey it in all that it requires, and trust it in all that it promises. Our focus must be on the Gospel because it brings God's power, so it’s the only thing we preach.

Part 2 – SERIES: Vertical Way too often our primary day-to-day focus is horizontal, on the here and now. But we’re called to lift our heads, to keep our eyes on Jesus, to seek God’s glory, to get Vertical. To worship means to express and ascribe worth to someone or something. We're commanded to ascribe greatest worth and glory to Jesus Christ! When we gather to worship as God's people, he is enthroned on our praises. This week we look at the freedom we can enjoy in our gathered worship of Jesus Christ, with our voices, our hands, and our posture.