Pastor and Jan have returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia, seeing sites that Westerners have not seen for thousands for years. In these last days, God’s Word is speaking loudly through recent discoveries in the areas of history, science, archeology and geography. Today, we explore one of the most powerful stories in the Bible: the Exodus. Geographical details are significant - they remind us that God's deliverance has taken place in history. The God who split the sea in Exodus 14 can also raise the dead, destroy evil, and create a new heaven and earth. Through His power, there is true hope and salvation for all who call upon His name. https://www.awakeusnow.com Resources suggested by Pastor Dodge to explore new theories on the location of events in Exodus: The website https://www.patternsofevidence.com/ Video series - "Patterns of Evidence" "The Lost Sea of Exodus," "The Exodus Mysteries," books by Dr. Glen A. Fritz "Mt. Sinai in Arabia," book by Joel Richardson

God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. To understand what Mary Magdalene saw in the empty tomb that first Resurrection Sunday (John 20), consider the Ark of the Covenant and the part it played in the Day of Atonement - the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Luke 18:9-14, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 57:15, Psalm 51:15, 1 Corinthians 1:31, Micah 6:8.

There is incredible danger in pride. God requires humility. Jesus told this story of two prayers - and the two pray-ers. One prayed about his own righteousness, the other prayed in humility and repentance. Which man went home forgiven?

“To those who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable.” (Luke 18:9). This is a targeted story. It is a targeted parable as Jesus speaks to people who are spiritually proud and tend to look at everyone else with disdain. What was true in Jesus day remains true today. Many times we judge others by our own standards rather than God’s and very often we are quick to see the failings of others, but ignore our own weaknesses.

People can outwardly put on a form of religion but inwardly deny its real power. The parable tells of two people who went to the temple to pray. The pharisee stood by himself to pray - he was perceived as religious, dedicated, devout. Many saw him as the “good guy.” But does Jesus? Here’s what the pharisee says, “God I thank You that I am not like other people: robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or tax collector. I fast two times per week and give a tenth of all I receive.” (i.e.: look how great I am!)

Then Jesus describes the prayer of the tax collector, who stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” No excuses, not list of accomplishments.

The difference in these two prayers are profound and Jesus turns the “good guy” (pharisee) and the “bad buy” (tax collector) story inside out and upside down. Jesus say of the tax collector, “This man went home justified before God, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Father desires, above all else, humility from His children. God desires a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:15). Repentance is what our Holy God desire and what our sin condition demands. God desires the we are humble before Him. We compare ourselves to others, but instead the true standard is that we compare ourselves to a Holy, Perfect God and then we see we are all sinners in need of a Savior in order to stand before our Father.

We need a Savior and Jesus is that Savior, the perfect sacrificial Lamb, the One needed because by us all because we are all sinners. We need humility in order to come before God and say, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Fallen people need a Savior and we need to recognize our need for Him. As we have all sinned.

God is gracious and we are needy:
-- We need a Savior, Jesus
-- We need forgiveness
-- We need cleansing
-- We need renewal
-- We need rebirth

Are we boasting about our lives? Accomplishments? How religious we are? How good we are?

We need to hear Jesus’ voice in this parable and realize our only boasting is to be in the Lord and what He has done (1 Corinthians 1:31).

Humility before God is not weakness, it is strength.
Humility before God is not an indication of our failing, it is an indication of God’s mercy and grace to those who recognize they need a Savior.

https://www.awakeusnow.com

The Parables of Jesus is part two of our Two Year Study of the Gospels. Jesus is known for telling some of the greatest stories ever told. In telling these stories He uses the form of a parable which is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus’ parables resonate in every culture and in every generation around the world.

This study is great for large group. small group or home group Bible study.

God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. Psalm 22 not only speaks to our hearts when we feel abandoned by God, but it also foretells the suffering of Jesus 1,000 years before those events took place.

God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. In Daniel, the angel Gabriel announced the coming of Messiah in the Old Testament as well as the New, and foretold both the building and the destruction of the Second Temple.

This teaching is from Matthew 19:13-30 and Matthew 20:1-16.

This teaching starts with a focus on children. The disciples didn’t like that people were bringing little children to Jesus, these children were babies, infants, toddlers, and the disciples were thinking Jesus is trying to talk to the adults and they’re bringing kids to him, taking time away from Jesus speaking, that they were noisy and disruptive and that it just wasn’t appropriate.

But Jesus says, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying kids matter to Him, They are part of His kingdom!

The question is how does a child believe? But then, how does an adult believe? The answer is in 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul says that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. It’s only when the Holy Spirit moves in a person’s life (adult or child) that they can believe.

Many times we act like the disciples, looking at things from a human standpoint and personal prejudice instead of the vantage point of heaven. Jesus is saying kids matter and after correcting the disciples He blesses the kids.

Then the text moves into the topic of wealth and Jesus answers the question of a man asking Him how to be saved. Meaning the man is asking what he can do, this man has it wrong - we are saved by grace, not works. But Jesus patiently continues with the man and He mentions to keep the commandments to which the man replies that he’s done that. Jesus sees into the man’s heart and understands that he is proud of his accomplishments, wealth and focused on earning eternal life.

This is when Jesus invites the man to be one of his disciples and to sell his possessions and give to the poor. But as Jesus knew he would, the man goes away sad because the reality was his wealth was his god.

Jesus continues that it’s hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. But what is Jesus really saying? He’s using hyperbole. So the question then is: if you have to go through the eye of a needle to be saved, who then can be saved? Jesus replies that with man that’s impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Meaning that it’s not by wealth or what we’ve accumulated, or earned or done or accomplished that we are saved, we are saved by grace alone and THAT is only possible with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is showing us that God is over all and He is to be our treasure and number one priority in our lives. He’s to be the heart of our lives. Jesus says what matters most is our relationship with Him.

We don’t buy our way into eternal life, but we are called to use the gifts God has given us to His glory and for His good. So we to make sure that God is heart and center in our lives.

Pastor continues with chapter 20 where Jesus tells the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. The owner hired workers at sunrise, then 3 hours later hired more workers and then even more workers at noon, 3pm and 5pm. When evening came the owner paid ALL workers with a denarius (a day’s wage). And those that worked the least amount of hours got the same pay as those that worked the most hours. Those that worked the most hours complained to the owner and his response was, “Are you envious because I’m generous?”

So we ask: is this just? Here’s a quote that helps us understand what Jesus is teaching: “We are fools if we appeal to God for justice rather than grace!”

If God were completely just we would all be in hell, but He is merciful and Jesus is trying to bring home that truth.

Only the grace of God saves.
Only the mercy of Christ offers life.
Only the blood of Jesus covers our sin.
Only a relationship with God through faith in Jesus delivers us.

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God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. In Genesis 6-8, can an object be a foreshadowing of Jesus? What does the Ark of Noah show us about both God's judgement and His saving grace?

Throughout the Old Testament, God uses foreshadowings (a literary device that hints at what is to come) to point us to Jesus, the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. In Genesis 22, why did God first tell Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and then provide a substitute sacrifice instead?