Wawasee Bible Sermon Audio

Part 2 - SERIES: 20/20 Vision For Life There is a generic version of you that tempts you to settle for a generic life. But God has called you to more than that ... He has called you to something unique and powerful. It won’t be easy—and it will probably require things in your life to be broken and peeled back—but the end result is worth the journey. Jeremiah calls God’s people to turn from their sin, to break up the fallow ground, to return to him. The journey to uncovering your true, God designed, self requires a return to the Lord.

Part 1 - SERIES: 20/20 Vision For Life God has a dream for your life. Unfortunately, most people never find clarity about God’s dream for them and they settle for a life that is less than what God designed. You are God’s one-of-a-kind design, created with a divine destiny in mind. Are you willing to enter into it?

Part 3 - SERIES: Love One Another One of our Core Values at Wawasee Bible is that “We All Need Friends”. We’re looking at the Why, the What, and How of needing and practicing friendship. The New Testament has a lot to say about the “how”, we often refer to them as the “one anothers” of Scripture. To fulfill the “one anothers” we can focus simply on one, “love one another”. You can be a friend who loves at all times because you have been loved for all time.

Part 2 - SERIES: It's Worth the Mess. One of our Core Values at Wawasee Bible is that “We All Need Friends”. We’re looking at the Why, the What, and How of needing and practicing friendship. We all need friends—but friendships and relationships in general are messy. In fact, every relationship you have is messy to some degree. And the problem in your relationships is inside you, it’s rooted in your sin and how we wrongly relate to others. But the good news is that there’s a cure, and Jesus reconciles us to God and to others.

Part 1 - SERIES: We All Need Friends One of our Core Values at Wawasee Bible is that “We All Need Friends”. We’ll be looking at the Why, the What, and How of needing and practicing friendship the next three weeks. We all need friends—but we isolate ourselves, so God offers us family. There’s one aspect of bearing God’s image that is impossible for us to do by ourselves: We cannot image his relational nature without being involved in community. We were not designed to go through life alone. In fact, God created us lacking and needing relationship, even before the Fall. It is by his design that we all need friends!

Love The Lord With All Your Heart As we head into 2020, there’s no greater goal than to grow in our love for the Lord! Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind in Matthew 22:37-40 (quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4). He goes on to say the second greatest command is to love others, to “love your neighbor as yourself”. Loving God and loving others is a decision we must make, and it’s revealed by sacrifice. As you begin 2020, ask the Lord to give you more love for him and more love for others!

Closing Out 2019: He Crowns the Year As we close out 2019 we take some time to look back at God’s goodness to us as a church and as individuals in 2019. Psalm 65 is a Psalm of David that would have been sung around the end of harvest, thanking God for all the ways he provided for and blessed his people throughout the year, “crowning the year with his bounty”. Jesus deserves praise for his grace and his awesome deeds!

Part 4 - SERIES: In Excelsis Deo For Christmas this year we’re looking at the Christmas accounts involving angels. We began with an overview of who and what Angels are and what they do before opening up Matthew 1 and 2 where three times (maybe four) an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. In every case, Joseph demonstrated great faith from which we can all learn. Faith is beliving God’s Word and acting upon it (now matter how I feel) because God promises a good result. — And he keeps all of his promises!

Part 3 - SERIES: In Excelsis Deo For Christmas this year we’re looking at the Christmas accounts involving angels. This week we looked at the angels’ appearance to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20. Shepherds were social outcasts at the time and yet that’s the group that gets to first annnouncement of Jesus being born! No matter who you are, Jesus’ birth is good news and your only hope for lasting joy.

Part 6 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. We’re part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, and as an extended family we exist to glorify God by multiplying transformational churches among all people. This week we wrap up our 6-weeks series on the nature and mission of the church, and we’re looking at this idea of multiplication. Is it really a biblical thing? Multiplication? God designed his Family to be fruitful and multiply for his glory, others’ good, and our joy!

Part 5 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. God calls us to be a church for and among all people. We’re sent to love people and invite them to follow Jesus with us. The Church is sent to reach everyone and embrace anyone. To do this we must check our prejudice at the door, recognizing that God shows no partiality—so all people matter. The example of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch is a powerful example of this truth lived out. As a church for all people, we're sent to love everyone anywhere.

Part 4 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. Part of being a transformational church means having a transformational influence on our community. We’re sent to love people and invite them to follow Jesus with us. Part of that means we’re sent to love our community. We’re an outpost of God’s Kingdom, sent to proclaim and live out the message of the Gospel. We’re to be salt that confronts evil, and light that advances good.

Part 3 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. The Church is God’s Family. His people on his mission. We’re studying the nature and mission of the church. Wawasee Bible is part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, who’s mission is “to glorify God by multiplying transformational churches among all people.” At the root of being a transformational church is being rooted in the Gospel. To be transformational a church must be rooted in the bible—recognizing it’s authority, teaching it faithfully, and applying it regularly.

Part 2 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. What is the church? It’s God’s family. His people on his mission. Many have wrong ideas about what the church is and how it should function, but God’s plan and design is for the church to be family, made up of people who are adopted into the family through the work of Jesus. We’ve been called out of the world to Jesus and sent into the world for Jesus.

Part 1 - SERIES: We Are Family: God's People. God's Mission. Mike Hanafee and Clete Bontrager from Restore Church in Detroit, Michigan are our guests today on EFCA Church Multiplication Sunday. Clete shares the story of Restore Church and Mike preaches from Revelation 7. Eternity is about God being glorified for his salvation by all peoples. Jesus wants this to happen now and gives clear marching orders to us to make multiplying disciples.

Part 21 - SERIES: Redemption Only a little over 40 days after God spoke the 10 Commandments in the hearing of all Israel, they had totally turned their backs on him, making idols and engaging in all kinds of sinful behavior. In Exodus 32 Aaron and Moses demonstrate two examples of what happens when we either listen to the “crowd” or listen to God. One leads to death—but God’s Word is life!

Part 20 - SERIES: Redemption In Exodus 20 God gives his people commands for how they are to live as his people in the Promised Land. The Ten Commandments first appear here in Exodus 20, not as commands for people to obey to receive God’s favor and salvation, but BECAUSE of him already giving them his grace, favor, and salvation. It’s good to remember that God’s commands are for our good. When God says “Don’t…”, what he’s really saying is “Don’t hurt yourself…” If you’ve trusted Jesus and become God’s child, you are faced with a moment-to-moment choice of obedience. Choose to obey, choose blessing. Choose to sin, choose to suffer. This week we give an overview of the 10 Commandments (just the first of 10 of 613 commands God gives Israel).

Part 19 - SERIES: Redemption In Exodus 19 and following, God shows up and reveals himself to his people, Israel. When God shows up it’s always an invitation to relationship with him. He loves us deeply and is continually pursuing us. After entering into relationship with him he calls us to obey him, and then continues to show us more and more of who he is as we do. How have you responded to his call to relationship? And how are you seeking him so that you might obey and know more and more of him?

Part 18 - SERIES: Redemption Moses was a great leader! In many ways, second only to Jesus. So what made him a great leader? In Exodus 18 we get a glimpse into some key leadership principles from Moses’ life. Great leaders are teachable, empower others, prioritize their family, set boundaries, and emphasize character over talent. (*As mentioned during the message, much of this week’s content originates with Pastor Larry Osborne’s teaching, writing, and preaching on Leadership & Exodus 18.)

Part 17 - SERIES: Redemption Before leaving Egypt (and as they were rescued) the Israelites never had to fight. God alone did all the fighting to save and rescue them, they only had to believe his word and follow. Once free and on their way to the Promised Land, though, they had to begin fighting... and to the degree with which they obeyed the Lord and trusted him in battle, it was to that degree that they had success and blessing. In this life trouble will come and require you to battle—do so depending upon Jesus!