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Pastor Roger Spradlin looks at the role of the shepherds in the Christmas story.

The book of Jonah is not primarily about Jonah running from God. It’s not about a great storm. It’s not even about a great fish, or a great revival at Nineveh. The key is what the story tells us about the nature of God!

One of the most beautiful parts of the Christmas story is that of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her demonstration of Christian character through, humility, grace, and submission to God’s will is a wonderful illustration of the forgiveness, transformation, and hope found within the Christmas narrative.

The eighth commandment, “You shall not steal”, is fundamentally about relationships. This is true both with our relationship with God as well as with one another. Do we trust that God will provide for us? Or, do we have to take something else that God has not supplied?

When we think of stealing, we usually think of someone with a gun that goes into a convenience store and robs it, but there’s more subtle ways that this commandment is violated. There’s a natural inclination or desire deep down where we want something for nothing, and that affects both our relationship with God, but with one another as well.

The fifth commandment is about learning to treat people with respect, beginning in the home. The greatest image that we have of God in the Bible is that of a father. We should honor Him first by acknowledging His great sacrifice , that He sent His Son to die for us, then we should honor Him with our obedience by living as He’s instructed us.

God made us and He understands us. He gave us a day not only to rest our bodies and to recharge our emotions but also to refocus our spirits and to shape our values. He is saying if you want maximum performance in your life, you need to balance work and worship.

Love is the motivation for keeping the commandments as well as the motivation God had in giving the commandments. When you think about it, if you love God, you won’t have any problem with this first commandment, which is to have no other gods before Him.

God, in the very first commandment, says that we’re going to have something that is the ultimate priority of our life. He also spells out what that priority should be: "You shall have no other gods before Me… I am the Lord your God." That means we can have a personal relationship with God!

The Ten Commandments may be the most famous Scripture in all of the Bible. We always think of them, though, in the negative because they are stated negatively. The fact is, there’s a positive principle behind each of these commandments!

God often uses a crisis to persuade us to repent and to bring us to a greater recognition of grace.

We live in a proud culture. The American dream is predicated somewhat on pride. I can achieve, I can be successful. We honor those who are self-reliant, resilient and strong. But Scripture tells us that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. God could choose to humiliate us. In this message we learn that He did with Judah.

Christ’s love does not end when the event of Christmas is over.

Salvation is not based upon keeping the law.

Jesus clarifies His relation to the law.

Spiritual Transformation - Spiritual transformation is a result of knowing the person of Christ.

A relationship with God affects how we live.

What does a follower of Jesus look like?

Why did Jesus leave Heaven to come down to Earth?

Before the Incarnation, Jesus was God.