South Valley Community Church

It is here that the true king of Israel calls his servant to deliver a message to people who don’t want to hear it. Do you like being a messenger? Were you “that kid” in middle school that shuttled notes between your best friend and the person they had a crush on because your friend was a “chicken”? Imagine for a minute what Isaiah was asked to do. Go tell your people—your family— that they are a...

The apostle Paul, along with the majority of New Testament authors, knew that the book of Isaiah was essential to understanding Jesus and His gospel. “Isaiah’s prediction” noted in Romans 9 above is from the beginning of the Scroll of Isaiah. In fact, Isaiah’s first chapter can be viewed like a summary of what is contained in all of its pages. It is important that we look for terms and imagery use...

Why does Isaiah matter to us? After all, we are Christians, so why would this ancient Jewish prophet’s voice have any impact on us? If you review concordances, commentaries, or other biblical reference works, you will find that the books of the New Testament make direct or indirect references to the words of Isaiah more than 400 times. Do the math. If a typical New Testament (without commentary an...

All the functions of a name—reference, revelation, and reputation—come together to carry a lot of weight. A nickname given by a friend or a foe can bring with it remembrance, sometimes in the form of encouragement, and other times as an anchor around one’s neck. We can see that these names of God carried significant weight in the memory of the people of God in the Bible and they still carry weight...

Sometimes names can give a feel for one’s reputation and point to history. Think of figures such as Alexander the Great, Bloody Mary (Queen of Scots), or Vlad the Impaler. Though the name may not carry a wealth of information, it can speak of the renown (or infamy) of a person. In the Bible, there are many examples of names for God that do this. In Isaiah, it often speaks of the “Holy One of Israe...

Sometimes names function as a simple reference, but other times they reveal something related to one’s character. For example, if you stop to help a stranded motorist with a flat tire, the motorist may call you a “hero” or a “savior.” Names can be a revelation about a person. YHWH Ra’ah or Rohi means “God is my shepherd.” A quick read of Psalm 23 will show what the author feels about the character...

We all have personal names. If you have forgotten yours, think back to that time you broke a lamp, stole a candy bar, or lied about your grade on that test. Our mother never forgot our personal name, in fact, in situations such as these she often included our middle name just to ensure no one else would be confused and think she was talking to them, right? Though there isn’t total agreement on mea...

Hank Hanegraaff serves as president and chairman of the board of the North Carolina–based Christian Research Institute. He is also host of the nationally syndicated Bible Answer Man radio broadcast, which is heard daily across the United States and Canada—and around the world via the Internet at equip.org. Hank is the author of more than twenty books, with more than a million copies in print. He i...

Jonathan Morrow is the Founder of Think Christianly, a web site devoted to promoting the Christian worldview--especially through the vulnerable post-high school years. He speaks around the country helping Christians understand what they believe, why they believe it, and why it matters. He speaks nationally at conferences, camps, churches, and retreats to youth and adults on Christian worldview and...

Mike Licona is associate professor of theology at Houston Baptist University and president of Risen Jesus, Inc. He has a Ph. D. in New Testament Studies from the University of Pretoria, which he earned with distinction and the highest mark. Mike was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his book In Defense of Jesus: Investigating Attacks on the Identity of Christ and appeared in Strobel’s video The Case f...

Greg Koukl started out thinking he was too smart to become a Christian and ended up giving his life for the defense of the Christian faith. A central theme of Greg’s speaking and writing is that Christianity can compete in the marketplace of ideas when it’s properly understood and articulated. Greg has published more than 145 articles and has spoken on more than 40 college campuses both in the U.S...

Freedom Sunday by Gospel Centered Mission Focused

The Heart of a Father (Conclusion) Sam Whittaker 07.23.17 by Gospel Centered Mission Focused

1 John 5:13-21: 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 16 If anyone sees his brother comm...

1 John 5:1-12: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overc...

1 John 4:7-21: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and se...

1 John 4:1-6: 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard...

Matthew 1:18-25: 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him i...

1 John 3:11-24: 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life,...

1 John 3:1-10: 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in hi...

Have you ever been to a zoo and watched a caged animal behave in awkward ways, like a panther pacing back and forth or an elephant swaying unceasingly? This stress-induced behavior has been cleverly named “zoochosis” but is also known as stereotypy. Matthew 6:25-34: 25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you w...

Family traditions are funny—road trip seating assignments, family game nights, pre-dinner table rituals. As children, we may have gone to a friends house and wondered “why doesn’t my friend’s dad sing a song before passing the mashed potatoes”? Sometimes the tradition was honored, sometimes ridiculed, and other times simply loathed. Matthew 6:5-18: 5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hyp...

Isaac Serrano speaks on Colossians 1:15-23 at all campuses in the second week of this series. Poetry has always been an effective medium for communicating and remembering essential truths. This passage, emphasizing the supremacy of Christ, is one of the earliest Christian poems written, and it provides a wisdom for the ages that both the Colossians and we should heed.

Isaac Serrano speaking at the Gilroy Campus on Luke 10:1-37 during the twelfth week of this series. Jesus, the lamb of God, prepares His followers to be ambassadors on a dangerous mission.