Village Bible Church Podcast

Jesus continues to talk about the persecutions of the end times to warn the disciples and encourage them to trust and obey Jesus.

Jesus begins to warn the disciples of trouble ahead so that they will maintain faith, obedience, and trust.

Jesus compares the scribes who want to grab everything they can for themselves with the widow who gives everything she can to God. He challenges us to give everything we have to God's service.

The religious leaders now try to trap Jesus with issues of politics, theology, and legalism/obedience. He refuses to get side-tracked by these and keeps pointing them back to loving and serving God.

The religious leaders confront Jesus about cleansing the temple, but He uses it as an opportunity to show how unreceptive their hearts were. What blinds us to the work of God?

The fig tree provides a living parable: the temple looked fruitful but in fact was fruitless, just like the fig tree on the side of the road. The missing ingredient was faith and faith leads us to dependent, confident prayer to the God of the impossible.

Pastor Ron discusses how our vision statement, "Building Christ focused families that disciple their community for Him," will impact Village this year. We will be focusing on reproducing disciples through discipleship starting with conversion to maturity. Come be part of it!

We are challenged with how to respond to Jesus' birth by looking at the Magi and their response of joy, worship, and giving.

If we are to give like Jesus this Christmas, we need to understand how He gave. Listen and discover how Jesus gave intentionally, personally, sacrificially, and abundantly.

On Monday of Passion Week, Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit and then clears the vendors out of the temple as they were keeping Gentiles from prayer and worship. What do we do that hinders worship and people from finding Christ?

Jesus reveals that He is the Messiah as He enters Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. May we see Him in awe as King and worship Him, trusting that He is working His plan.

As He travels from Jericho to Jerusalem towards the cross, Jesus stops and heals a blind man. This blind man exhibits faith and discipleship in the midst of difficulty and cries out for mercy.

Jesus compares how his disciples should lead with how the world leads. There is a remarkable difference between servant leadership and power leadership. Pastor Ron gives an overview from scripture of how to be a servant leader in the church family and in your home.

Jesus predicts his death one more time to show the disciples what servant leadership really is. He came to serve and be a ransom for many!

Jesus teaches that an attitude of humble dependence and surrender like a child is required to be saved.

One of our missionaries, Fernando Napoles, challenges us to be willing to present the gospel to the world.

Jesus describes God's plan for marriage as one of intimacy and permanency. This week we discuss how to build closeness in your marriage and build a marriage pleasing to God and one that will withstand time.

In a culture where divorce is seen as normal and a viable option, Jesus' words of instruction about the permanence of marriage are vital. It is important we come back to what the Bible teaches about divorce rather than what is convenient for man.

Jesus continues to teach the disciples that following Him means abandoning self. In this passage, Jesus shows that a disciple deals with sin seriously and decisively.

When Jesus, Peter, James, and John come down from the transfiguration, the other 9 disciples were unable to cast out a demon. Jesus reveals their faithlessness and shows how it was to be done with prayer representing a dependence on God. We are challenged to move from self-reliance to God-reliance.

Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that He must suffer and die. It is a confrontation between Peter's ideas and the will of God. We must all deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.

Jesus heals a blind man in a 2 stage healing to illustrate the disciples' spiritual state. They were starting to realize He was the Messiah, but not that His mission was the cross. We are challenged to realize we all see dimly and should ever be growing deeper in our understanding of God.

Message by Pastor Andrew Gilmore