Ridge Life Podcast

This second song is Zechariah’s Benedictus that’s a latin word that means blessed. It’s named this because of the first word in Zachariah’s praise. “Blessed” For 9 months Zechariah has been unable to speak because he asked for a sign from the angel about the birth of his son John the baptist. After his son is presented at the temple, he names him John and Zechariah begins to praise God.

For the month of December we will be looking at some specific songs of praise found in Lukes Gospel. These are the very first hymns of praise found in the NT. There are a total of 4 songs of praise that are sung by three individuals and angels that were woven throughout the time of Jesus’ birth. The Lyrics in these songs are unique expressions of love for the Savior, and God’s marvelous provision...

Jesus encounters the Pharisees her in this passage and Jesus has to teach them about the importance of the heart and where real uncleanliness comes from.

We have spent some time this month looking at what lament is, how we lament, and how our pain meets hope. We’re going to look today at the destination of our laments. Praise should be the result. Praise in the midst of pain is probably one the most difficult things we are called upon to do as Christians. Is it possible to praise God even in the midst of pain? Yes! The book of Lamentations is testi...

If we are going to move from pain to praise we need to take the next step. We aren’t suppose to stay in the cycle of constant complaining. God want’s us to move beyond that. The next step is seeing how our pain meets hope. How?

In times of brokenness and seasons of grief, God is so good to us by giving us the remedy for us to tell Him what’s going on. It is through this process of lamenting that we can address the pain in a way that not only honors God but steers our hearts toward Him! How do we lament?

In this life that we live, we experience pain, loss, grief and despair. We are broken. We see and experience sadness, loss, grief, and agony every day in and around the world. Sin and its results are evident in this life. God gives us an awesome way to process our pain through lamenting. As we lament it will teach us how to turn our pain to praise.

Mark 6 gives us a very interesting view of how the disciples interacted with Christ. The disciples found themselves in a storm on the sea of Galilee again and Christ shows up waling on water. The disciples are amazed at what happened and it says "Their hearts were hardened, because they didn't consider the miracle of the loaves" Why were their hearts hardened? What was it about the loaves that the...

As Paul wraps up this letter, he again revisits one last time what this whole book has been emphasizing: Are you going to live a life of legalism or grace? So in the last final sentences of his letter Paul is going to emphasize it one last time to get his point across.

How are you serving those in the body of Christ? Are we serving others in the body of Christ. Christ calls all of us to serve, but more importantly He uniquely calls each of us specifically for a certain task.

The life that has been transformed by grace lives a spirit filed life. What does that life look like? A spirit filled life makes spiritual investments. What ever we sow we will reap.

In Mark 6 we see the awesome encounter of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a few fish and few loaves. In this passage we see Jesus serving the sheep and providing for them. What do we learn from what Jesus provided and how he served His sheep?

Paul began the fifth chapter of Galatians with the command to stand firm in the liberty Christ gave us. We stand on God’s grace, and we depend on His strength, not ours. The liberty and the freedom of the Gospel was under attack. The false teachers were saying that to live a life of grace you would be doing what ever you wanted to do. To live that way would produce all kinds of law breaking. As we...

Paul has been talking about being spirit filled. In this last chapter we are going to see how a spirit filled believer actually lives their life. Remember why Paul was writing these things. It’s a defense of what the false teachers were saying to live a life apart from the law would lead a person into all kinds of wrong living. He however was showing them that a believer is to live by grace and th...

These believers were in danger of abandoning the incredible grace they had in Christ. They had got off the course of grace. Paul's letter was an attempt to get them on course again and this section is an emotional plea for them to get back in the race of grace. How could they, and how can we, get back to running in grace?

Paul has been answering the false claim that to live a life apart from the law and only live by grace one would go into all kinds of sin. He did this by showing us that every believer has a conflict within. The desires of the flesh are at war with the desires of the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill those desires of the flesh. So we have to make a conscious daily decision to wal...

Allan McGuire brings the message for us our of Mark 6. This is another "Markin Sandwich" where Jesus teaches His disciples in how to handle those who reject you when you preach the Gospel.

This list here today is a list of many things that can and will show up in our life when we are not walking in the Spirit. The Gospel can and will save you from these things if and only if we are walking in the Spirit. We don’t have to live this way.

As we begin a new chapter here in Galatians, Paul is going to defend his belief in the Gospel and the freedom it brings. The false teachers were saying that living a life of Gospel freedom would produce a life of unrestrained behavior where one could do whatever they wanted. However Paul is going to show us that the Gospel actually produces a life where a person is free to live for God.

In Mark 6 we get a look at the life of King Herod and his actions of what he did to John the Baptist. Herod's life was marked by family dysfunction and it showed in how he had John the Baptist beheaded.

As we wrap up chapter 4 today, Paul is going to use another story from the OT to prove his point about how we are brought into our relationship with God. Paul goes all the way back to Genesis again and retells the story of Hagar, Sarah, and the birth of each of their sons. It will be thorough this story from the OT that Paul will use to help the Galatian believers see that they need to reject lega...

As we look at chapter 4:8-20 today, we will see the the pastor side of Paul. As he is giving the Galatian believers truth he makes a loving appeal. He’s pleading with them to remain free in grace and not attach all these laws in order to gain favor with God. With a bleeding heart, Paul begged the Galatians to stay firm in the gospel of grace.

As we finished chapter 3 last week we saw what faith is able to do. When we believe in Jesus by faith we become sons of God and we are part of the family of God. Paul is saying all these things because he is building on the relationship that we have with God because of our faith. We don’t earn a relationship with God through works. What the Galatian believers were caught up in and what we sometime...

As we have been working through chapter 3 Paul has been giving us point after point that a person can only be accepted by God through faith in the gospel. Keeping the Old Testament law is not necessary, and Paul has been reaching back into the OT to prove this. If you have just joined us Paul is addressing the issue of legalism that one must keep the law to be accepted by God. It’s not Jesus + the...

Here in Marks Gospel we have the story of two women who were touched by Jesus. What do we learn about them and what do we learn about Jesus?