Sermon notes of Pastor Mark Downey

April 23, 2017

Scripure Reading:  Luke 21:15-19

Et tu, Brute?” from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Just seconds before the assassination of the Roman emperor and being stabbed to death, Caesar sees one of the young Senators with knife in hand and exclaims “you also?” Imagine the last words out of your mouth is the surprising question to someone you thought was a loyal friend, but instead your executioner. To live by the sword is to die by the sword has become a common refrain for pacifism, but Jesus' admonition to Peter lobbing off the ear of the high priest's SWAT team member was not anti-sword; it was protecting Peter from being arrested himself, even though Peter was just trying to protect his Master. After Jesus was betrayed by Judas, the cops moved in to make the arrest. In hindsight, Peter should have aimed his sword at Judas, but this was a perfect moment of predestination as Jesus told him, “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?" John 18:11. The metaphor of a cup often signifies a measure of divine affliction, possibly derived from the custom of some nations putting someone to death with a cup of poison. Jesus had come to die as a sacrifice for sin and betrayal was a necessary ingredient to teach us many lessons which we'll explore today.

Copied from the Sermon Notes of Pastor Don Elmore

December 24, 2017

Scripture Reading:  Deuteronomy 1:37-40

We start off today’s sermon with Moses relating that the old generation would not go into the Promised Land. Everyone older than 20 years old was the old generation. Twenty years old is the age when a child becomes an adult, not at 18 years old. Our nation has fixed the age of adulthood at 18. They have the children leaving the home in which their parents are guardians and taking charge of their own lives, when they are still a teenager. Children, especially girls, leave their protective homes and are vulnerable to the dating game when they are living in dorms away from home. They are even in trouble when they are home because dating is not the Biblical way—courtship is. But that is another sermon.

Copied from the Sermon Notes of Pastor Don Elmore

December 10, 2017

Scripture Reading:  Deuteronomy 1:1-5

First, this week has seen over ¼ of a million-people evacuated from their homes in the western part of America. Where and why? It is in southern California near Los Angeles that wild fires, spread by high winds, up to 70 mph, are devastating neighborhoods, practically without any warning. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, with the threat of many more. A quote from a resident: “I have lived in this area for 30 years and I have never seen anything like this.” Guess what city Meghan Markle was reared in. We have raised the ire of our LORD God.

Second, President Trump agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel that the United States will recognize Jerusalem, the main city of the three major religions, as the capital of Israel. Mr. Trump, officials said, would make clear that the United States is not taking a position on whether, or how, Jerusalem is divided between Israel and the Palestinians. He will also not take a position on who will control a disputed area of the Old City, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, which has been a flash point for tensions.

President Trump plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American Embassy there, upending nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and potentially destroying his efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The very pro-Jewishness of our government should be very evident. They put fake-Israel first. Palestinians as well as many of our allies decry this position. We have raised the ire of our LORD God.

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

November 26, 2017

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 27:11-13

Galilee to the North, Judah on the South and in the middle, was Samaria; three different areas of the former kingdom of Israel. And they were populated by very different individuals after Israel was deported because they broke God’s laws. The punishment, which they must have forgotten, was captivity by a foreign power; as the six tribes on Mt. Ebal read exactly what would happen to the Israel people if they disobeyed their God. The six tribes who read the curses consisted of the oldest and youngest sons of Leah: Reuben and Zebulon, and the two sons of Rachel’s handmaid and the two sons of the Leah’s handmaid. All the children of Rachel and four of the sons of Leah were assigned to read the blessings on Mt. Gerizim.

What a day that must have been. The Israelites were instructed to gather stones and put plaster over them. The Israelites were to write the laws of God on these stones that were located on either Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Ebal (there is confusion on which mountain, depending on what source you read). In addition, they were to build an altar unto the LORD their God, on which they were to offer burnt and peace offerings.

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

November 12, 2017

Scripture Reading: Ezra 10:10-11

10) “And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.

11) Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do His pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.”

Have you ever seen children of a mixed-race couple? Which race do they look like? The majority look like they are a blend of both races; they are what the Bible calls them: a “confusion of faces.” They have genes from both races, and they can usually be very confused as to what race they come from. The children are certainly not born in the image of either parent.

The Israelites had committed two main sins:

1. They hadn’t separated themselves from the people of the land, and

2. They hadn’t separated themselves from their strange wives.

Let’s go back into Chapter 9 and see if we can find what led up to the controversy in Chapter 10. Let us read verses 1-4:

Sermon Notes by Pastor Mark Downey

October 29, 2017

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:21-24

From an anonymous quote I found years ago: “I see said the blind man as he opened his Bible.” A closed Bible availeth very little. The sights and sounds that Jesus spoke of in Luke were figures of speech. It was no more literal than Romans 11:25, “that blindness in part is happened to Israel.” The “blindness” was a hardening of the heart of which the good news of the Gospels could not enter a man. Thus, Jesus was speaking to His inner circle who would be receptive after being under the present influence of the Lord's teaching about Himself. Even though their faith was weak and wavering, they got a glimpse of His Divinity. It must have sunk so deep into their hearts, that they made the transition from physical sight to spiritual sight. They were blessed beyond measure. We find a lesson in Mark 8:24 in which a blind man, who was not born that way, was healed by Jesus. “Regaining his sight he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking." Interestingly, there are some who place more significance on the tree as “people”, than the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. If we were to point out a parallel of these trees, which not everyone will see, they represent a prejudice and presumption that prevents them from seeing the intents and purposes of God. The first sin and thus the Fall of man stems from the presumption that there would be no repercussions. Eve thought, 'well, this isn't going to kill me' (Gen. 3:4-5). God knew she would disobey Him and He said, “Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.” Is that a good thing? Small 'g' gods are never good and you can never mix good with evil. The Fall of man was a curse, a combination of positive and negative, which results in a spiritual short circuit, the loss of immortality. Likewise, the healed blind man saw walking trees as such, because the restoration of sight was not immediate; he was seeing things in a state of confusion; obscured yet with imperfection.

Sermon Notes by Pastor Mark Downey

October 15, 2017

Scripture Reading: Luke 22:35-38

Forgive me for the alliteration (a series of words starting with the same letter) in our title. Perhaps a sequel could be Baal, Bongos and Babylon. The Titanic ship of Babylon keeps getting closer and closer to the iceberg of God. The Admiralty jurisdiction wants to confiscate all life preservers and life boats with the artificial storms of Marxist Dialectics. There will be some who jump ship into the great whore that sits upon many waters (Rev. 17:1, 15). They would rather surrender their souls to the final beast empire of prophecy than walking on water as Peter did momentarily. I'm waxing a bit poetic, but can you feel the crescendo of our times hitting the boiling point of Christians in the saucepan? The antichrists probably think of us as the frog, but don't want us jumping out of their century long conspiracy to boil us to death. They want voluntary compliance; for us to beg them to please turn up the heat. But be warned, the first breath you take after you surrender will not be the breath of life, but the polluted air of zombies. After so many years of senseless gun-related shootings, they envision the White Christian American to march down to their local police station and tell the Chief, “Please take my gun”. Hardly any of these sensational shootings make any sense and most have an uncanny pattern of coincidences, always aided and abetted by the mainstream jewish media. They very seldom tell the whole truth about a shooting and suppress revealing information that would suggest others were involved besides the lone nut. However, God goes so far as to say, “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” Rev. 18:24.