Morning Hour Chapel

Who Did They Think He Was? - What is Truth?

Who Did They Think He Was? - Betrayed and Denied

Who Did They Think He Was? - Love and Impulse

Who Did They Think He Was? - Church and (Enemies of the) State

In this podcast, Pastor Joe continues his sermon series, "Who Did They Think He Was." We meet two apostles who were polar opposites and discover how Jesus meets us where we are.

Who Did They Think He Was? - The Lesser, The Other, and The Unknowns

Who Did They Think He Was? - The Pragmatist, The Prejudiced, The Perturbed

Have you ever found yourself missing out on knowing Jesus because your brain just can't wrap your head around the idea of Jesus being the Son of God? Or maybe you think about Jesus and just can't reconcile how the Messiah could come from such an obscure, illiterate little town as Nazareth? Maybe you're so busy working FOR Jesus that you don't have any time to KNOW Jesus?

In this podcast, Pastor Joe speaks about Philip, a pragmatist who had difficulty thinking of Jesus as anything but the military leader who would rescue Israel from Rome; Nathanael (Bartholomew), who didn't believe that anything good could come from a backwater hill town like Nazareth; and Martha, who was so busy serving Jesus and the disciples that she couldn't find the time to just sit at Jesus' feet and get to know him.

Who Did They Think He Was? - Fishermen and Rich Women

Endings and Beginnings: The Beginning of Unity in the Church, Part 2

Have you ever had a moment where your life was completed turned upside down? Where you didn’t know what was going on, but you did know that your life would never be the same?

The apostle Peter had just such a moment when God told him to visit with a Roman centurion named Cornelius, a Gentile, and to preach the word of God to him and his family and friends. Peter broke the Jewish law by fraternizing with these Gentiles (a law that was not given by God, but was created by Israel). But God’s command was clear: “What I have called clean, do not call common.”

In this podcast, Pastor Joe finishes a sermon series about “Endings and Beginnings of the 1st Century Church.” He speaks about Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that one and for all invited every person in the world to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He also invites us to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community as we enter the season of Lent, a time of preparation and anticipation of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He invites us to love our neighbors and to invite people to church who might need to hear the good news of the Gospel.

Endings and Beginnings: The Beginning of Unity in the Church, Part 1

When you pray, do you make time to listen for God to respond? We spend a lot of time asking God for things, including asking Him His will, but how often do we spend prayer time listening for His voice?

Pastor Joe introduces us to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and a God-fearing man who was known to follow the Jewish beliefs. He was visited by an angel of God and instructed to send for Simon Peter, the apostle. The next day, God visited Peter as he was praying and did something drastic – He told Peter to kill and eat animals that were against the law for Jews to eat. When Peter balked, God said “What I have called clean, do not call unclean.”

Two separate encounters over 30 miles apart. Two men, a Gentile and a Jew. What could God have in mind by bringing these two together? 

Endings and Beginnings: The Ending of Saul / The Beginning of Paul

When we confess Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit enters into us and does some stuff! He may give us new gifts, talents, and experiences, or He may use our existing gifts, talents, and experiences (or both!) so that we might do the work of building the kingdom of God.

In this message, Pastor Joe shares the story of Saul, who later became Paul. He speaks from Acts 9 about the ways in which Jesus Christ worked through Saul, blinding him and making him utterly helpless. Jesus also worked through Ananias, a disciple who feared arrest and death at the hands of Saul but who did God’s will and went to Saul, prayed for him, and watched him accept Christ, be baptized, and begin preaching boldly the gospel of Christ. We see how God used the disciples in Damascus to help Saul escape people who were wanting to kill him and how God used Barnabas to tell the disciples in Jerusalem that Jesus had done a mighty work and had brought Saul to Himself.

After Saul came to Jerusalem, we see that the church multiplied and grew in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Joe asked us to stand up and to fear God and not men, and he asked us to take comfort from the Holy Spirit when men would try to silence us from sharing our witness of Jesus Christ’s work in our lives.