Scriptures: Acts 17:24-27, John 1:4, John 6:4, 1 Timothy 4:8, Ecclesiastes 3:11.

This is a series that takes a look at things that are readily obvious, but whose significance is frequently missed. We’ll look at Fingerprints of God that are truly all over the world today and all over our lives and yet so often in the busyness of the moment we miss those amazing reminders of God’s goodness, of His presence, of his faithfulness and of His great gift of Jesus Christ for each of us.

God IS speaking in amazing ways in our generation and in our time!

Pastor talks about the miracle of life and the odds that science has placed on life happening, they say it requires at least 150 unique things to make life possible. The research calculates the chance of that “accidentally” happening to be 1 chance to the 50th power - that’s a 1 with 50 zeroes behind it… or impossible….

How life happened cannot be explained, but there is a 1 word, three letter answer - IT’S G-O-D!

LIFE IS A MIRACLE!

Our culture sees life as just happening, but with a 1 to the 50th power chance that’s saying it’s impossible. Life didn’t just happen, life is created and God is The Creator!

Living things like singing birds, our pets, the sky, truly are fingerprints of God. Acts 17:24-27 tells us, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth … He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

Fingerprints of God
⁃ Life - everything living
⁃ Us inhaling and exhaling at this moment!
⁃ Raising Jesus from the dead
⁃ Creation
⁃ Salvation

John 1:4 tells us, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” Jesus didn’t come to this world to make bad people good, Jesus Christ came to this world to make dead people live. We are spiritually dead and in the Lord Jesus Christ, God offers real life to each of us - it’s life that lasts forever!

John 6:40 says, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” Life itself is a fingerprint of God and we were created to live forever and that forever life is found in Jesus.

There is a present life and there is the life to come. In that life to come we will live forever even through we experience physical death.

God has left His fingerprint on our hearts and He tells us He has put eternity in our hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11: “ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

The way we spend our forever life hinges on ONE thing and that is how we receive the gift that God offers. JESUS IS THAT GIFT.

God offers life through His Son and that’s a gift and promise we want to accept through faith in the perfect One, Jesus, who’s fingerprints were nailed to the cross, who conquered sin, death and the devil when He rose from the grave, the One who promised to return!

LIFE is in Jesus and Life is the FINGERPRINT OF GOD AND HIS LOVE.

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Scripture: 2 Samuel 13-19.

Father Wounds - are wounds brought into our lives through family members. Deep wounds with lasting consequences.

Father’s wounds - are wounds to parents by their children. It is grieving because their children turned their backs on the things they were taught from the time they were little.

Both are deep and painful wounds.

How to deal with the pain and how to go beyond it.

Our study covers:
Amnon rapes Tamar (2 Sam 13)
Absalom hates Amnon (2 Sam 13)
Absalom murders Amnon (2 Sam 13)
Absalom flees to thalami (2 Sam 13)
Absalom conspires against David (2 Sam 15)
Absalom revolts against David (2 Sam 15-17)
Joab executes Absalom (2 Sam 18)

In our study we see that wounds eliminate the spiritual strength of King David. We also see wounds that bring about rebellion and hatred, anger and murder. We see wounds experienced by a father who feels he has failed his son.

A tragic horrible story. Yet God desires to speak to us through it. This story is in the Bible for a reason and purpose. The purpose is not just to inform but to transform. God desires to bring healing, hope and strength and to reverse the painful trajectory of what we have experienced.

Divine Prescriptions

⁃ Sow and Reap - Galatians 6:7-8 Consequences of our behavior can be negative or positive. “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Also, as seen in David’s story, God forgives, but the consequences of sin are still there.
⁃ Nurture or Anger - Ephesians 6:4 encourages fathers to teach their children to live uprightly and faithfully before God and for fathers to model an upright life to their children.
⁃ Truth and Love - Ephesians 4:15 We are to speak truth to our kids but speak that with love.
⁃ Forgive and Release - Whether we have father wounds or father’s wounds we are to forgive and letting go. Colossians 3:13 We are to forgive as the Lord forgives us - even those who have disappointed us, hurt us deeply, and in that forgiveness and releasing there is healing and there is hope.
⁃ Father and Son - 1 John 2:1-2 Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sin and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. God loves us and His love goes beyond the love of any father. Our Heavenly Father offers each of us healing, hope and life-transforming power.

If you have been the victim of a father wound or if you are experiencing a father’s wounds, you need to know there is a Father who loves you more than you could imagine. Who understands the wounds because those wounds were placed in the very body of His Son and He offers to us forgiveness, eternal life, and the ability to start all over.

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The discovery of the ancient ruined city of Sodom proves that the Biblical account of this city is no fairy tale, and shows us a picture of the final judgment. In Biblical times, people did not understand what was coming nor heed the warnings, but these stories are real and they have a lot to teach us! Jesus pointed to the destruction of Sodom and the devastation of the Great Flood to warn His people of the coming final judgment and to call them to repentance and eternal life in Him. We, too, need to know not only WHAT the future holds, but WHO holds the future. Matthew 24:37-39.

The Gospel of John Week 11
Scripture: John 7:22-59.

Pastor opens by sharing details of the Feast of Tabernacles and the scriptures of the Living Water that were read during this 8 day festival. Festival readings included: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Zechariah 14:8 and Jeremiah 17:13b.

As our story opens, it is the Feast of Tabernacles and these scriptures would have been read. Pastor goes on to share that there has been much learned over the last 100 years and especially in the last 15 or so that helps to bring this text and the story alive. As we look at what we know about the time of Jesus and what we are discovering, they are changing our understanding of the Bible, bringing a new sense of significance and even urgency as what we are discovering is a testimony that says, “This is real!”

Some recent archeological work has found what is believed to be the City of David - but not at all where it was thought to be, and the discovery of the Hezekiah Tunnel, and more recently the Pool of Siloam show us a different location than originally thought for the Pool and also that it was a very large pool, not a small one. Also that it was filled with fresh water by the Han Spring flowing through the Hezekiah Tunnel into the Pool. The Pool of Siloam was the only fresh - or living water in the city of Jerusalem.

Pastor shares the events of Tabernacles and the pouring out of water into the Temple by the priests carrying it from the Pool of Siloam for the first 7 days of the festival. On the 7th Day they carried and poured water 7 times in the Temple.

So as our story continues, it’s either Day 7 (7 times the priests poured water in the Temple) or it’s Day 8 (the day of rejoicing, and celebration) when we read verse 37-38, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

He is essentially telling them that what you’ve been doing for the last week with the pouring of water, point to Me and it’s what the prophets said would happen when Messiah comes, that living water would pour out of the Temple. And then it goes on in verse 39, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.and that the Living Water is the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is saying that He is the fulfillment of what the prophets have declared and that everyone who believes on Him will receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus is calling us to a new day - the fulfillment of what the prophets have said - Messiah- is here! And He, the Messiah, gives the Holy Spirit. Jesus is claiming to be God.

At this some called Him prophet, others called Him Messiah and others were in disbelief and angry. The crowd became divided with many wanting to seize Jesus. The temple guard go and report back to the chief priests.

The chief priests were Sadducees and they united with the Pharisees, a group that they did not get along with but they did unite together over their desire to do away with Jesus. The very ones who should have embraced Jesus as the Messiah, instead say, “Let’s kill Him.”

Pastor concludes by saying in 6 months from this event of Tabernacles, the Passover will be celebrated and we will see Jesus dead, and raised during another important festival and how this festival too, finds its fulfillment in Jesus.

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⁃ The Gospel of John study is part five of five of our Two Year Study of the Gospels.
⁃ The Gospel of John may be one of the most powerful books ever written. Many people have come to faith after reading only this book of the Bible. Scholarly and archeological discoveries in recent decades give us new insight on details in the Gospel of John. We can now understand it as the most Jewish rather than the most “Gentile/Greek” of the Gospels, and when we do that we see many things that we missed before.

Our 2 year study of the gospels is great for large group, small group or home group study and can be started at any time!

On the day Jesus returns, we want to be among those who hear Him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Those who know the Lord Jesus will want to live out His love, mercy, and forgiveness in their daily lives; they will celebrate, not fear, His return!

"Follow the leader..." Who is the leader? Human leadership is always flawed and always disappoints. But there is a leader who is flawless, always in control, and upon whose Word and leadership we can rely - the Living God!

We may think, "I'll start obeying God when my faith is strong enough," but God says: "Follow me TODAY, and watch what I will do tomorrow." Obedience flows from faith, and then faith grows from obedience.

Scripture: 1 Kings 1-11, 1 Chronicles 28-29, 2 Chronicles 1-9, 2 Samuel12:24-25, 1 kings 1, 1 Kings 2:2-3, 1 Kings 2:13ff.

This study will take us on an adventure through a period of approximately 400 years, a highly significant time when God was moving in a mighty way among His people, Israel. It will cover from around 970 BC when Solomon took the throne until 586 BC when Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. It is a time filled with incredible stories, amazing truths, especially applicable truths and lessons for us in our lives today. There is an amazing cast of characters, people like you and me, sinners, all, but individuals whom God used in a wide variety of ways. And it all ultimately points to the Hope of the world, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and King of Kings.

Background:
Moses & Exodus - ca. 1446 BC
Joshua’s Conquest - ca. 1406 BC
Judges rule - ca. 1390-1050 BC
King Saul - ca. 1050-1010 BC
King David - ca. 1010-970 BC

We begin our study with Pastor encouraging us to read about the reign of Solomon from around 970 - 931 BC in the following books of the Bible:
1 Kings 1-11
1 Chronicles 28-29
2 Chronicles 1-9

Solomon is believed to be the author of:
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs

David and Solomon each reigned for 40 years and their combined 80 year reign ushered in Israel’s Golden Age.

David known for being a warrior, a worshiper of God, musician and writer, he was also devout - while not perfect, he did follow the Lord. A man who followed God’s heart.

Solomon was known as a man of peace, a man wisdom - authoring hundreds of proverbs, a man with literary gifts, but Solomon was divided - starting well but not finishing well.

Solomon: Early Years
⁃ Birth - 2 Samuel 12:24-25 - the son of David and Bathsheba.
⁃ Adonijah’s Conspiracy - 1 Kings 1 - Adonijah’s the oldest living son of David and attempts to take the throne so that Solomon could not.
⁃ Solomon’s Coronation - 1 Kings 1 - Solomon is anointed while Adonijah’s party is going on. Solomon was crowned king while David is still alive.
⁃ David’s Words - 1 Kings 2:2-3 - David encourages his son, Solomon, to be strong, observe the commands and decrees of the Lord, and the laws and regulations as written in the Law of Moses.
⁃ Adonijah’s Appeal - 1 Kings 2:13ff - works to undermine Solomon’s throne.but Solomon ordered Adonijah’s execution thereby preserving his throne and reign.

Israel grew in size under David so Solomon receives a very powerful, large kingdom.

Next week we will take a look Solomon as a Wise Leader.

Now What? Learn about God at https://www.awakeusnow.com EVERYTHING we offer is FREE.

View live or on demand: https://www.awakeusnow.com/tuesday-bible-class

Join us Sundays
https://www.awakeusnow.com/sunday-service

Watch via our app. Text HELLO to 888-364-4483 to download our app.