Great Oaks Community Church

Jesus’ letter to the church there is a warning (to them and us) against compromise. There are those in the church at Pergamum that have compromised the Truth of God and accepted the false teaching of Balaam. Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament book of Numbers that was offered a lot of money by the Moabite king (Balak) to curse the Israelites. He tried 3 times but was unable to curse them. Each time, God only allowed him to bless His people. Balaam said that God’s people cannot be cursed in that way. They are protected. So he faced a dilemma. He couldn’t get the job done and yet he wanted to get paid. So, he came up with a plan. He told the king to send Moabite women to the people of Israel to entice them to sexual immorality. He advised the king to send these women with their idols and sacrifices to those idols to further entangle the Israelites in sin. He knew that although he could not curse them from afar, they could bring themselves under a curse through sin, rebellion, and diso

In our “Dear Church” series, we’re studying the 7 letters to the 7 churches from Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3. This week, we looked at the second letter – the letter to Smyrna. This letter would be a tough one to receive from Jesus. Smyrna was a top tier city in its day – considered first in Asia, beautiful, prosperous, safe, and fun. And yet the Christ-followers there were heavily persecuted. They were suffering – poor, slandered, bullied, thrown in prison, and killed.

Week one was all about the first letter which was written to the church in Ephesus. The opening of the letter has a lot of encouraging words showing that Jesus is pleased with a lot of what the people in the church are doing. He says He knows their works. He sees that they are patient and enduring many difficulties. He sees that they have not grown weary. He knows that they have been tested by false teachers who claim to be apostles and have remained steadfast. And all this is all being done for Christ’s namesake.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

In week 3 of our series on the Lord’s Prayer (Teach Us to Pray), Pastor Jake talked about the third part of the prayer. Remember – this prayer is not just for memorization and recitation. Jesus was teaching His disciples (and us) not what to pray but how to pray. “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” First, we pray from a revelation of who God is. Then last week we tackled the second part – “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” – and we said we pray from God’s will. God’s will is the foundation we lay our prayers upon. This week was on Luke 11:3-4, which says this: “Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” So now we learn that we pray from God’s provision.

In week 2 of our series on the Lord’s Prayer (Teach Us to Pray), Pastor Jake talked about the second part of the prayer. Remember – this prayer is not just for memorization and recitation. Jesus was teaching His disciples (and us) not what to pray but how to pray. So we start by praying from a revelation of who God is. He’s our Father in Heaven. He’s holy. The second part of the prayer is “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Pastor Jake’s main point was that we pray from God’s will. In other words, God’s will is the foundation we lay our prayers upon. Prayer is not just asking for things. It’s more than that. It includes listening, worshipping, thankfulness, humbling ourselves before God, and more. Prayer is about drawing close to God. In doing that, we discover His will and pray from it with confidence. We pray that His Kingdom would invade our little kingdom; that

It’s communication with God. There are many types. It’s not just memorized prayers, kneeling down, by yourself, KJV voice, etc. It’s constant communication with God. Concerted/set-aside, longer time for prayer is vital, but you can and should also pray in your car, when you see someone in need, while you’re on the treadmill, etc. It’s talking AND listening. How do you recognize His voice? How do you recognize anyone’s voice? If your dad were to call you from an unknown number, would you recognize his voice? Of course you would. Why? Because you’ve heard it so many times. It’s the same with God. The more you pray, the more you recognize His voice. It takes time and practice.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Pastor Jake has introduced three different areas of focus that we will cover over in this series: inward, outward, and together. Last week, we discussed the inward focus, specifically study of and meditation on God’s Word. This week, we will discuss the outward focus. Pastor Jake mentioned 4 disciplines in this category: Solitude, Service, Submission, and Simplicity. Since we live in a culture consumed with our stuff, the Lord led him to teach mainly on the idea of simplicity (a spiritual discipline most of us could use some help with). Globally speaking, we live in an unbelievably rich and affluent place. We have more stuff and complexity in our lives than any other culture before us, in the history of the world. All this stuff was supposed to give us more time and make things simpler, but it hasn’t. It’s only produced lives bloated with things to do, material possessions to protect, trinkets to shine, notifications to check

Pastor Jake has introduced three different areas of focus that we will cover over in this series: inward, outward, and together. Last week, we discussed the inward focus, specifically study of and meditation on God’s Word. This week, we will discuss the outward focus. Pastor Jake mentioned 4 disciplines in this category: Solitude, Service, Submission, and Simplicity. Since we live in a culture consumed with our stuff, the Lord led him to teach mainly on the idea of simplicity (a spiritual discipline most of us could use some help with). Globally speaking, we live in an unbelievably rich and affluent place. We have more stuff and complexity in our lives than any other culture before us, in the history of the world. All this stuff was supposed to give us more time and make things simpler, but it hasn’t. It’s only produced lives bloated with things to do, material possessions to protect, trinkets to shine, notifications to check.

Looking all the way back to the beginning, we see that Adam and Even were created for perfect fellowship with God, but sin changed all of this. We now live in an imperfect world and inherit an imperfect nature. It is the reason why we struggle with sin so much. However, that longing to have a perfect fellowship with God still remains in all of us and is the reason behind our desire to want more in our lives. It is why we exhaust our time, money, and resources in an attempt to improve ourselves; but, no matter how many goals we set and complete, we never feel complete. The reason for this is because we can lose our focus from the things God calls us to do.

Pastor Nateended the year off with a message about Killing Criticism. He likened criticism to the acid we used in the class of chemistry that burned everything it touched. It ate a hole in a block of wood, grafted deep scars in a metal bowl and destroyed a plastic tablet permanently. We used goggles and gloves and special beakers to hold the caustic fluid, but we were still hesitant andscared. The warnings of our teacher had brought a healthy fear of injury to our minds. Many of us opted out of the experiment and took the necessary steps as soon and carefully as possible, relieved when we could get rid of the poisonous fluid.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Pastor Jake continued our Christmas series “Vantage Point”, telling the story of Christmas as the “Story Teller” from four different vantage points. Every other story is connected to this story; like streams flowing into rivers, and then into the ocean, every other story flows into this one in some way, but it’s not just a story. It’s the story. It’s history, but it’s not just history. It is the history. This story changed everything; set humanity on a different course. At its core, this is a story of redemption and grace. It’s a love story about a prince who leaves his castle to win back His bride. It’s an adventure story about a hero who crosses into enemy territory to rescue the prisoners held in darkness. It’s this epic tale about the deepest kind of love…love that sacrifices all, gives all, shuns all…for people that don’t deserve it in the least.

On Sunday, Pastor Jake kicked off our Christmas series “Vantage Point.” Christmas is not just a story. This does not go in the category of fairy tale. It’s not just a tradition. It’s bigger than that. This epic tale…it changed everything. It is the most important thing to ever happen anywhere. It changed human history. It set the earth itself on a different track. It changed the lives of billions upon billions. But not only that…what we’re talking about changed more than human history, because it transcends time. It’s eternal. It reaches back to the beginning and beyond…and all the way to the end and beyond.

Pastor Jake and his wife Erin preached the last week in our November Marriage Series called “Fixer Upper”. When you’re buying a house or building a house, you have to realize that things will never be perfect. There will always be things that need fixing. Things will happen to the house; things will fall apart; as years go by, you’re going to have to do some updating and some remodeling. You’ll have to maintain things if you want that house to last. Really every house is a “fixer upper” eventually. And it’s the same with marriage. Every marriage is a fixer upper. There are no perfect matches or easy relationships. Every marriage has its ups and downs. On Sunday, we talked specifically about “building your marriage to last”. God may be the one “joining people together” in marriage, but He’s not the one separating them. That’s on us. Much of the time marriages end simply because the people in them don&#

Pastor Jake preached the third week in our November Marriage Series called “Fixer Upper”. When you’re buying a house or building a house, you have to realize that things will never be perfect. There will always be things that need fixing. Things will happen to the house; things will fall apart; as years go by, you’re going to have to do some updating and some remodeling. You’ll have to maintain things if you want that house to last. Really every house is a “fixer upper” eventually. And it’s the same with marriage. Every marriage is a fixer upper. There are no perfect matches or easy relationships. Every marriage has its ups and downs.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

On Sunday, we launched our November Marriage Series called “Fixer Upper”. When you’re buying a house or building a house, you have to realize that things will never be perfect. There will always be things that need fixing. Things will happen to the house; things will fall apart; as years go by, you’re going to have to do some updating and some remodeling. You’ll have to maintain things if you want that house to last. Really every house is a “fixer upper” eventually. And it’s the same with marriage. Every marriage is a fixer upper. There are no perfect matches or easy relationships. Every marriage has its ups and downs. When we buy a house we know that we’ll have to fix things. We know there will be maintenance, upkeep, and unforeseen expenses. No one goes into home-ownership thinking that signing the contract is the end of their worries. And yet a lot of us approach marriage that way. As if the wedding day is the goal and the end. We don’t