East Ave Community Church

The Book of James | Somehow, the struggle of the first century of the first followers of Jesus has been lost in translation. Would it come as a surprise to you to know that, in Jerusalem’s big picture, that the early Christians and Jewish leaders had a much larger common enemy? The big picture struggle wasn’t an argument about whether or not Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, but rather over how to handle the occupation of Jerusalem by Rome. Even though Rome was the common enemy, the Jews and Christians had very different ideas on what to do about it.

 

 Adversity [00:47:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The Book of James | Have you ever wondered, if our entrance into heaven is based on God’s grace and not my actions, how good do I really need to be? I mean, it kinda seems like what I do doesn’t matter. It isn’t like I’m gonna take advantage of this loophole, I just don’t want to know why I should put out the effort!

James talks about how we should live, assuming that we are solid on the why. Today, we talk about why we should live as People of the Next Kingdom.

 

 People of the Next Kingdom [00:38:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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2 Kings 22 | Josiah became king among the ruins of his father’s religious disaster. It isn’t that his father simply was seeking his own path of spiritual enlightenment. It is almost like Josiah’s father was all about ticking off Yahweh the God of Israel by worshiping everything but Yahweh. Josiah cleaned up the altars of false worship and made a new discoveries along the way.

 

 New Discoveries [44:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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2 Kings 18-19 | The new king, Hezekiah, has come to the throne and will become the greatest king Israel ever had. That is not my opinion – that is written in the book of 2 Kings! That’s right, he is even better than King David. Why? He came into power, cleaned up the idol worship paraphernalia his father strewn throughout the land and made the worship of Yahweh popular again. Not only that, he led a led a rebellion against the Evil Empire that would have made Luke Skywalker proud.

 

 King Hezekiah [44:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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1 Kings 17 | Yes, there’s a lot of boring kings that are written about in the book of First Kings. King Ahab is not one of them! Now, the Southern Kingdom of Judah doesn’t have any good kings, but this one is the uber-evil one! So, it stands to reason that this guy gets one of the most interesting messengers from God – Elijah. This is the beginning for a beautiful relationship!

 

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1 Kings 14 | Now that King Solomon’s mighty kingdom has been broken apart, Jerusalem becomes a big target for all those countries around it that used to be afraid of the superpower. You see, Jerusalem still has all the gold and splendor of the capital city of an empire. It’s just that now the new king doesn’t have a prayer of defending it – at least with his kind of prayers!

 

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Okay, here’s the thing: Israel was really only a country with defendable boarders and a central government for 120 years. At the end of that period Israel was truly the crown jewel of the known world. Then, within 72 hours all of that changed. Read the rest of this entry »

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1 Kings 12 | So, Rehoboam (King Solomon’s son) takes over his father’s empire and immediately he is challenged with command and control decisions. During his coronation ceremony the people implore the new king to lower taxes and ease the burden on the people. Rather than becoming the most popular king of all, Rehoboam gives the wrong answer and looses the empire within 72 hours of the coronation. We tie all this back in to the story of Easter on this Easter Sunday.

 

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Proverbs 5:18-21 | Marriage today is pretty messed up, right? I mean, as an institution, could it ever have been in worse shape? As a matter of fact, it can! we discuss the ways in which marriage during Bible times in Bible places was so much more worse off than we have it! Why, even Solomon kept searching for happiness, married 1000 women and may be the most articulate miserable husband ever! Yet, the Bible also has answers for us, if we listen, to help us develop happy marriages full of all the stuff we need. Are you listening?!

 

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Matthew 6, 1 Kings 2 | As we observe the first Sunday of the Season of Lent, we should explore the both the acts of self denial and almsgiving. We use the 40 Days of Lent as a time to set new patterns of behavior, as well as sober self-reflection. This is a great time to identify those places in our lives that simply are not in the example of Jesus. We spend this time changing our behavior in the hope that actions that seem awkward and foreign become more natural to us.

 

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