John 18:1-27 • Peter Fails

Pharaoh’s Hard Heart

This Sunday, we are going to look at the issue of Pharaoh’s Hard Heart, seen dramatically in Exodus 7–8. Next week, we’ll double back through these chapters and look at the plagues in detail. But for this Sunday, it is all about a “Heart Check”! King David has a good word to mediate on as we prepare for the study on Sunday— Psalm 51 10   Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11   Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12   Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. And consider Proverbs 4— 20   My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21   Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. 22   For they are life to those who find them And health to all their body. 23   Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. May your heart be soft and pliable under the Potter’s perfect touch, and stay on that potter’s wheel until you are shaped into the perfect image, the reflection of Jesus Christ! Blessings, ~Jeff

Exodus 5

The Bible tells the same amazing story over and over: God rescuing folks from impossible and desperate situations. • Job out of a hostage situation and out of the city of Sodom • Jacob out of Laban’s treachery • Joseph out of Potiphar’s home and out of prison • David out of Saul’s maniacal quest to hunt him down • Israel from the clutches of a long train of oppressors in Judges • Hezekiah from defeat by the Assyrian forces at Jerusalem • The Exiles from Babylon and Persia, back to Israel • The Apostles out of the prisons And on and on! What is the greatest rescue and redemption story in the Bible? Surely Exodus, right!? Partly yes, except Exodus is also a foreshadow and picture of the Cross of Jesus: where the whole world of sinners was offered open prison doors! In Jesus, we find our escape once and for all from the devious devices of satan and the pernicious “passing pleasures of sin” that enslaved us and enacted a devastating, bankrupting toll on our lives. In Exodus 5 this Sunday, we will learn 5 lessons of bondage and helping those who are enslaved to the spiritual “Pharaoh” of satan, sin, and this world. Peace! ~Jeff

Exodus 3 • Holy

Exodus 3 • “Holy" We are going to linger in God’s presence with Moses at the Burning Bush this Sunday. We are going to see God’s Holy… 1 • Fire 2 • Ground 3 • Mission 4 • Name 5 • Grace Ponder this as you prepare for Sunday—a simple, ordinary desert bush was made extraordinary by the presence of God and His holy fire upon it. This is just like the disciples in Acts 2, as the Spirit comes upon those simple, unqualified, uneducated, country-hick boys, and they are made into remarkable vessels of the Gospel Message, turning the world upside down. I’m praying for all of you simple desert (or mountain) bushes—that God’s fire comes to rest upon you, setting you aside as holy for His use. ~Jeff

Exodus 1-2 • First, Fear God

Satan loves the “Moral Dilemma” strategy—where he puts God’s people in impossible situations, where they must choose between obey God and disobeying the Government, which God says we must submit ourselves to. Satan tries to create a “lose–lose” scenario, but God has a way of flipping it around, making it a “win–win.” That is the story we see in Exodus 1&2—Pharaoh tries to institute a genocide, but God's faithful find ways to prevail. May God grant us wisdom as the devil tests us the same way! Looking forward to an amazing Sunday morning with y’all. ~Jeff

John 21 • Follow Me!

This Sunday we are wrapping up the book of John —unpacking the beautiful chapter 21. The title is “Follow Me!” Jesus says this to Peter in a sweet moment of restoration, after Peter’s tragic denials of his Rabbi on the night of Jesus’ arrest.   The key thing is—this isn’t the first time Jesus told Peter to follow Him! Three years earlier, Jesus told Peter to follow Him, and He’d make Peter a fisher of men.   Peter needed to hear this again. Perhaps even, again and again.   What about you? Are you in need of restoration? Have you fallen out of step with Rabbi Jesus? Do you need to pray, as King David did, Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation? ~Jeff