Wawasee Bible Sermon Audio

Message #4 of 18 – SERIES: Joshua: Choose This Day Joshua sends two men into the land as spies to prep before the people cross the Jordan. In Jericho they meet a prostitute named Rahab who helps them with lodging and an escape from the city. In Joshua 2 God saves, redeems, and uses very ordinary people.

Message #3 of 18 – SERIES: Joshua: Choose This Day In Joshua 1 we see a vivid example of how God expects spiritual authority to work among his people. In all things, God is our ultimate authority, just as he was Joshua's and all of Israel's. Joshua is a good leader who submits to God's authority, obeys him, and works to foster unity among the people he is leading.

Message #2 of 18 - SERIES: Joshua: Choose This Day Moses is dead, and Joshua is in. After years of waiting, wandering, and suffering because of the sinfulness of a previous generation, Joshua is given the green light to enter the Promised Land with God's people. Joshua is to remember God's continual presence, he is to be strong and courageous, and most importantly he is to be obedient.

Message #1 of 18 – SERIES: Joshua: Choose This Day This message sets up the background for the Old Testament book of Joshua and the man Joshua. Joshua is a book about Jesus, and our continual need to choose him over our idols. Will Jesus be First or will you? Make a choice.

We're all image bearers of God designed to reflect and image Jesus. Just as a mirror can only reflect and image what it is focused on, the same is true for us. We only image and reflect what it is we point our lives at, that is, what we worship. What are you focused on? Will you worship and image Jesus, or worship and image your idols?

Sometimes it seems like a weird detail that Jesus, Joseph, and Mary escaped to Egypt to avoid Herod's insanity in Matthew 2, but the reason was to fulfill prophecy and to identify Jesus with his people. In the original Exodus of the Old Testament God redeemed his people from the captivity of Pharaoh. It all foreshadowed the new exodus where God redeems his people from the captivity of sin by the finished work of Jesus on the cross. (Matthew 2:13-15)

Jesus would have been a toddler at the time a group of "wise men" from the east showed up at his mother's door to worship the boy born as King of the Jews. Their journey was costly and the gifts they brought were incredibly valuable. Herod the Great (appointed by Rome to rule in that region as "King of the Jews") was troubled by their arrival when he learned that a threat to his throne had been born nearby. But Jesus' mother, Mary, would have experienced their arrival as an incredible expression of God's grace and steadfast love. (Matthew 2:1-12)

Matthew writes his gospel to a Jewish audience, and tends to focus on Joseph in his account of Jesus' first coming. The obedience of Jesus' adopted dad, Joseph, is a great example for us. He loved his wife Mary well and he was quick to obey God when God spoke to him. God speaks to us primarily through his written Word, and we, like Joseph, need to believe his Word and act upon it, no matter how we feel, because God promises a good result. (Matthew 1:18-25)

Why does God include genealogies in the Bible? In Jesus' family tree are prostitutes, noblemen, cowards, warriors, redeemers, murderers & kings… and Jesus would be Savior of them all. No matter who you are or what you've done, Jesus loves you, can save you, and will use you to build his Kingdom. (Matthew 1:1-17)

Part #12 of Membership Class: Why Should I Pursue Membership? – In this session we cover the mission of the church (Great Commission, Great Commandment); the structure of Wawasee Bible; why a person should consider church membership; and finally we walk through the Membership Covenant.

Part #11 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning Response and Eternal Destiny – In this session we cover the tenth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Part #10 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning Christ's Return – In this session we cover the ninth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

Part #9 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning Christian Living – In this session we cover the eighth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

Part #8 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning The Church – In this session we cover the seventh article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

Part #7 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning The Holy Spirit – In this session we cover the sixth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christlike living and service.

Part #6 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning The Work of Jesus Christ – In this session we cover the fifth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

Part #5 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning Jesus Christ – In this session we cover the fourth article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus-Israel’s promised Messiah-was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

Part #4 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning The Human Condition – In this session we cover the third article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

Part #3 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning The Bible – In this session we cover the second article of our Statement of Faith: We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

Part #2 of Membership Class: What We Believe Concerning God – In this session we cover the first article of our Statement of Faith: We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.