Calvary Chapel River Oaks

The culture walks in the front door and the church becomes carnal and corrupt. This is where the church is today here in the United States, but as we will see in our study in Corinthians, this struggle in the church is not new. As we go through this study we will see how easy it is to focus on the wrong things and how easy it is to miss the mark. As in all of our studies, we will show a parallel b...

We will see and learn about the Power Of Prayer.

In Our last study in Judges chapter 20 we saw how Israel went too far and came very close to cutting off the entire tribe of Benjamin. In todays study we will see remorse, but not necessarily repentance. We will also see the how vows made in anger or passion, create problems for them. Finally we will see how conniving and manipulative they were finding ways around the problems they created for the...

Now as we get into this story, we have to realize that none of the tribes of Israel were walking with the Lord. We recently saw the tribe of Dan falling into idol worship. All of Israel had fallen away from God and “did what was right in their own eyes” and there are always consequences. In this study we will see the retaliation against the tribe of Benjamin.

In our last study, we saw the coming judgment not just for them in their day but also the final judgment that is coming, when God pours out His wrath on the whole world. We also saw the mercy of God being everlasting, even to an unfaithful people. Sin and rebellion have to be dealt with. God doesn’t have a blind eye to sin, that’s why Jesus had to come. Your sin and my sin had to be dealt with and...

We must not allow anything to come between us and the Living Holy God! Idolatry comes in many forms, not just a carved or molded image. Religion itself can become idolatrous if we are more concerned with the things of God rather than God Himself. We come to another difficult passage. The account of yet another Levite priest and his concubine will show us the depravity of men who turn from their Go...

We will see the world that Micah has built will be turned upside down and his loyal priest is found to be not so loyal. This is what happens when you don’t build your house on a solid foundation.

We will see a prophetical question and answer. The question is who is coming in power and glory? The answer is, Jesus Himself. We will see impending judgement and also His endless mercy and how God is perfectly balanced in both.

We meet two new characters. One named Micah, and the other unnamed is a lone Levite priest. This is not the prophet from the Mook of Micha just to clarify but another man of questionable character. Eventually we will see how these two men’s sin, would lead to the defilement the whole nation of Israel.

We will see how Samson continued to live out his life in self-indulgence and it brings him to an unpleasant end.

He will give them a new name that the mouth of the Lord will name. We know he is speaking to Israel and specifically Jerusalem. He will give them a new name.

Recapping briefly, we saw Samson’s character flaws being short tempered and easily agitated. He wanted a Philistine wife because it pleased his flesh. While his father pleaded with him not to do this, we saw that it was from the Lord in order to use Samson and his flaws to rise against the Philistines. He posed a riddle to the Philistine men that only he knew the answer to and after a week of cont...

As we get into part three, the last part of this message in Ezekiel chapter 3, we will see that as a prophet or speaker of God’s word, there will be persecution, the people will not like the message because it confronts their lifestyles and their fleshly nature. We will also see how God Himself with His hand heavy upon us, will shut our mouths and only allow us to speak His word that He has given...

In our last study, we saw Ezekiel taking the scroll and eating it. We know this is the word that God had given him to speak to Israel. We also see a similar image in, Revelation 10:8-11 8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel and said to...

In our last study, we saw that God has not forgotten or forsaken Israel. There is no replacement theology here. The entire chapter shows us that the Gentiles come to Israel, because of the light that God shines upon them. We saw prophetic words regarding both the millennial reign and the New Heaven and New Earth. There were many references to the Gentiles blessing Israel and that thought continues...

This week we are not going to be in Judges. We will pick up and continue there, but this week the Lord has laid a specific message on my heart in Ezekiel 3:1-27 God gave His word to Ezekiel through visions and images. He was born in Israel and was called as a prophet to Israel just before their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. His role as prophet continued while Israel was in captivity and...

God is so far above us in wisdom and knowledge. We cannot comprehend why He does what He does. We must however trust Him whether we understand or not.

As we get into this week’s study, we see the faithful promise of His deliverance and that when He ultimately accomplishes this, all nations will be drawn to Israel. Let’s begin here in Isaiah Chapter 60.

We read last week in verse one of chapter 13 that Israel again fell back into their idolatrous ways so God delivers them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. But God in His mercy begins to call His next judge, but he hasn’t been born yet. This week we will see God’s plan unveiled regarding the call upon Sampson’s parents and Sampson himself.

Ephraim had already seen how God moved and delivered Israel by the hand of Jephthah, but they were jealous because they didn’t get any of the credit, so they came up against Him. Now we need to understand that Ephraim is a large tribe and the most dominate tribe in Israel. What this tells us is that no matter how big the army, if you come against one that is with God, you will lose.

In our last study, we saw the fasting of Israel was not acceptable to the Lord. They had the practice down, the religious aspects of it, but their heart was far from the Lord. The sad thing is that they didn’t recognize it. They truly thought that their actions were acceptable and that God should respond to them with favor and blessings. The reality is any religious activity for religions sake is...

In our study last week, we were introduced to Jephthah who was an outcast because his mother was a harlot and all of his half-brothers ran him off until they needed him to fight for them. Up to this point, Israel had been under oppression by the Philistines and the Ammonites for 18 years. They cried out to God for help and then instead of waiting on the Lord, they quickly went after the one they h...

So in our last study we saw after Abemelech, came two judges, Tola and Jair, who judged for a total of 45 years. By the time Jair died, Israel again fell back into idolatry and they were oppressed by the Philistines and the people of Ammon. This goes on for 18 years before they cry out to the Lord for help. This shows the pride and sin in their heart towards God. Even when they did seek the Lord,...

In our last study in judges, we saw the judgment against Abimelech and the men of Shechem who initially aligned themselves with Abimelech but later turned against him. What we gleaned from Abimelech’s story is God does not ignore ore wink at sin. In the old covenant, God dealt with sin with harsh judgment, but always with mercy, and when judgment came, it was in administered by a perfect God who k...

What is worship? How does one go about achieving worship? Who is the focus of our worship? All questions I’m sure have confronted most of you here today. There are many things in our physical world that clamor for our attention, even our worship. But are they all worthy of such a high position in our life? What drives you forward each day? By this I’m asking what motivates you to be successful in...