Pastor Rick Hudgens |
Showdown at Sundown
Sunday/Feb/2008 13:55
Throughout this Lenten season, we have been joining
various God followers on “Mountain Top”
experiences. Today, we look at the great prophet
Elijah’s mountaintop experience in 1 Kings 18.
Elijah stood alone on Mt. Carmel; defending his faith
and the honor of his God against skeptics and scoffers.
One look around will show that our culture is not too
friendly to people courageously standing up and
standing alone for God, yet God longs for each of us to
stand anyway. Perhaps through Elijah’s example,
we can gain some strength and encouragement today.
Can one person really make a difference? The martyred
missionary Jim Elliot said these words: “While we
profess to know a power the 20th century cannot reckon
with, we are all side-liners. Coaching and criticizing
the real wrestlers while content to set by and leave
the enemies of God unchallenged. We are spiritual
pacifists, conscientious objectors in the
Battle-of-the-Death, with principalities and powers in
the heavenly places. The world cannot hate us: we are
too much like its own. Oh, that God would make us
dangerous.”
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Pastor Rick Hudgens |
Encountering the Almighty
Sunday/Feb/2008 13:16
When you look at a mountain range, you always notice
certain peaks, high points that stick up and out above
the rest of the range. Our lives have high points, too.
There are times, events and encounters that stand out
in our minds. Some of us distinctly remember an early
Christmas, the first day of school or your very first
date. We remember getting our driver’s license,
going away to college or the military. Every bride
remembers her wedding day. Every father remembers the
birthday of his firstborn. There are other high
point, too. Perhaps for you it was finally getting
the job you wanted, beginning your own business or
earning that graduate degree. A high point for some was
the day of retirement.
I hope for you there have been some spiritual high
points. I hope there has come a moment in your life
when you received the Lord Jesus, when you were born
again or saved. I hope there have been other high
points as well as you have grown in you relationship
with the Master.
Today we follow Israel to one of the highest points of
their national life. Today we follow them to Mt. Sinai
where they experienced the presence of Almighty God.
They heard God’s voice. They learned God’s
laws. They saw the smoke and fire and felt the earth
move under their feet. They encountered the
Almighty.
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Pastor Kevin Todd | The Lord
Sees
Sunday/Feb/2008 12:59
We begin our journey of Lent, a journey by which we
travel with our Lord down into the depths of our
identity. As we journey we will intentionally embrace
the act of giving up things upon which we are dependent
so that we might relocate our dependency upon God.
On
this journey we will also embrace the act of taking
things up; taking up practices and disciplines of the
faith that will enable us to know Christ and make him
known. Journeying, we will hear the call to take up our
cross and follow our Savior to the cross. But we
journey with the hope that this story does not end on
the cross.
As we begin our series on the Mountains of Faith, we
will travel with Abraham to the land of Moriah, perhaps
the darkest hours of his faith, and there we will
realize anew what it means to be able to say with
Abraham “The Lord sees.”
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Pastor Rick Hudgens | In God
We Trust
Sunday/Feb/2008 13:40
Today is SUPER SUNDAY at North Raleigh. In this final
message of the stewardship series we have designated
today as TITHE SUNDAY. The reason for this emphasis is
to experience what is feels like to be a congregation
of tithers for one week. Preaching on stewardship of
finances is not easy and it makes some people nervous.
We encourage you to RELAX and enjoy the presence of the
Lord in our worship experience today!
A
New Testament teaching on giving which may be helpful
to you is found in 1 Corinthians 16:2: "On the first
day of every week, each one of you should set aside a
sum of money in keeping with his income." This passage
brings out four points: we should give individually,
regularly, methodically, and proportionately.
As
you consider your participation today the deeper
question, maybe this: What has priority in our lives?
Is Christ really first—or do we put ourselves and
our own desires first? Make sure Christ is first in
your life, and then ask Him to guide you.
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