Lewes Presbyterian Church Podcast

Advocate, helper, permanent spiritual presence, spiritual instructor, spiritual compass
The fruits of the Holy Spirit
Characteristics of a person having the Holy Spirit living within them
Galatians 5:22-23
Scripture Series: THEOLOGY IN JOHN
Scripture Title: Holy Spirit
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: John‬ ‭14‬:‭15‬-‭31‬ ““If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave.” ‭‭
Sermon Summary:
The Holy Spirit is God’s constant spiritual presence in our lives. We are never alone and we can sense His presence in times when we are fearful or isolated. When a person trusts in Christ as their Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit permanently resides in them and transforms them to be more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit acts as a spiritual compass helping us to discern between right and wrong and good and evil. He instructs us and helps us make sense of God’s Word and its application to our lives. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts and equips us in every way to live for Christ. On our own, we do not have the strength to be able to live the Christian life and be faithful disciples.
 

Living life abundantly.
Greatest False Religions
Shepherds and sheep
Scripture Series: THEOLOGY IN JOHN
Scripture Title: The Good Shepherd
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: John‬ ‭10‬:‭1‬-‭18‬ ‭ ““Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.””
 

The Greatest Need for Humanity
Spiritual Bread
Need to Belong
Scripture Series: THEOLOGY IN JOHN
Scripture Title: Bread of LIfe
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: John‬ ‭6‬:‭25‬-‭40‬ ‭
“When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 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.””

Nicodemus
Spiritual Rebirth
To enter into the Kingdom
Born again Christian
Symbol of healing
Gods Desire
Scripture Series: THEOLOGY IN JOHN
Scripture Title: Born Again
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: John‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭22‬ ‭
“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.”
 
 

First 300 years of the Church
Scripture Series: THEOLOGY IN JOHN
Scripture Title: The Word became Flesh
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

God’s Mercy
Love of God
Scripture Series: JONAH SERIES
Scripture Title: Angry at God
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭11‬ ‭ “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”” ‭‭
Sermon Summary:
Jonah preached to a massive population of unbelievers in Nineveh and his message got through all the way to the King. The entire city experienced a revival. Jonah should have been on the mountaintop but he was depressed and angry. In Jonah’s mind they deserved to be punished. He felt it was only fair after the atrocities the Assyrians had committed. Have you ever been angry when someone gets a break or is forgiven when they should have got their just desserts. Humans can get pretty angry when someone gets what we think is undeserved mercy. God’s desire was that Nineveh would repent and follow Him and be obedient to His rule. Imagine the impact of a large city like Nineveh, which was the center of power and influence, would have for the Lord if its inhabitants yielded to God. Imagine if a city like Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia or New York had a spiritual revival and everyone in one of those cities turned to Christ. Imagine the impact on the US and on the rest of the world. God loves all of humanity and desires that they be saved. Christ died for evil people that they might turn to Him, repent and be saved from eternal judgement. And God’s method of saving the masses of unsaved people is by sending missionaries to them with the message of the Gospel. Many people from the cities are now coming to less populated areas such as Sussex County. We must look at it as an opportunity to make new disciples. The church, the people of God, are in the people business. We must have a love for undeserved people that they might find Christ through our witness.
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A reluctant Prophet
God of second chances
A spiritual mulligan
Scripture Series: JONAH SERIES
Scripture Title: Mission to Nineveh
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: Jonah‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭ “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
Sermon Summary: Our passage in Jonah 3 is all about second chances for both Jonah and the city of Nineveh. You and I serve a God of second chances. God restored Jonah for his disobedience and gave him a second chance. When we are disobedient to the Lord and refuse to repent, God may allow us to experience trouble for years and our lives are decimated. But when we confess our sin and return to God, He restores us and sets us back on our feet again. God’s second chance with Nineveh shows that no one is beyond hope or beyond responding to the love of Christ. God can reach even the hardest of hearts. There are many in our world today that seem far beyond the reach of Christ. Some of us have friends and family who have hardened their heart to the Lord. The Holy Spirit can break even the hardest hearts and turn them to Himself. When we are trying to reach those who are currently enemies of the Lord, prayer is the most important tool in overcoming barriers of darkness, and perhaps even fasting along with prayer. Secondly, never underestimate the power of God’s Word against spiritual opposition. Jonah was sharing God’s words with the Ninevites and not his own opinions and thoughts. When we combine prayer with the word of God, it can break through the darkness in the people that we know. And it can give them that second chance with the Lord that they desperately need. We serve a God who gives second chances over and over again, and receives us back even after we’ve made a complete mess of our lives.
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The Goal of a Christian life
Number one reason people stop going to Church
Our sacrifice to the Lord
Scripture Series: JONAH SERIES
Scripture Title: Fish Prayers
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture Reading: Jonah‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
Sermon Summary:
Our passage today is about Jonah being stuck in the belly of a whale. He was in pitch black, in the depths of the sea, the sound of water filling his ears and seaweed wrapped around his head. It must have been terrifying. God’s discipline had achieved what God intended. And Jonah cried out to the Lord and threw himself at God’s mercy. God disciplines those whom He loves. The Lord will have His way in our lives. When you or I are disobedient to the Lord, we can find ourselves in a dark place emotionally and spiritually. We are out of fellowship with the Lord and we are unable to hear His voice. There is a heaviness of the soul when we live in disobedience.
What do we do when we fail in our disobedience to Christ? When we go down the wrong path and end up in trouble. If we confess our sin, God promises to forgive us and restore us. Like Jonah, we need to turn our attention back to God. We do this through worship, through Bible reading, through Christian music and prayer. Each of us should commit to His Lordship over our lives. This includes our thought lives, how we handle possessions, our relationships with others and the calling that God has called us to serve Him. John 14:15 says, “If you love me, keep my commands.” One of the signs that our love for Christ is growing is our growing obedience to Him and His Lordship over our lives.
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The City of Blood
The Palace of Nineveh
Michael Packard diving for Lobsters June 11, 2021 off Cape Cod.
Jonah
Scripture Series: JONAH
Scripture Title: Running from God
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture reading: Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭16‬ ‭ “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.”
Sermon Summary:
Jonah was a prophet whose job was preaching against evil and wickedness. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because Israelite prophets rarely preached outside of Israel and Nineveh was over 700 miles away. Also, the Assyrians were enemies of evil and best known for their cruelty and viciousness against the people that they made war against. So instead of heading for Nineveh, Jonah took a boat to Tarshish, which is a town on the Spanish coast. He was getting as far away from God and Israel and from Nineveh as he could.
So Jonah rebelled and tried to run. As Jonah found out, no one can run from God. He is present everywhere. If you are God’s son or daughter, God will only allow you to rebel so much before He disciplines you. God disciplines those He loves. When we try to defy God’s will in our life, the going can get very rough. When we rebel against the Lord and go in a direction that he does not desire for us, he’ll set up road blocks or make the way so difficult that we turn back the the way that God wanted us to go to begin with. God opens the doors that He wants us to go through and He will often close a door He does not want us to go through. And like Jonah, one of the hardest things God will ask us to do is to preach the Gospel of Christ to our enemies or people we would never associate with. Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. God still loves people caught up in acts of evil. God wants them to come to faith in Christ and follow Him.
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Life after Life
Live without fear
Alive in the Spirit
The dead in Christ
After the Resurrection
Scripture Series: 1 Corinthians Series
Scripture Title: Resurrection
Pastor Greg Wiest
Scripture reading: ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭35‬-‭55‬ ‭NIV‬‬
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?””
Sermon Summary:
In our passage today, we are told that at the end of this age, God is going to bring all of us back to life who put their faith in Jesus Christ. When Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise from the grave. Jesus accomplished life after death for us by dying on the cross for our sins and then defeating death by rising from the grave. All of us were born as sinners. All of us have rebelled against God and have disobeyed him. Apart from Jesus, we are enemies of God. The end result of being enemies of God is death. Physical death and then spiritual death which is eternal separation from God in hell. God does not desire that anyone go to hell. His desire is that all are saved. But we must choose to accept his forgiveness through Christ’s death on the cross. We must receive him by believing in Him and confessing Him as Lord and Savior through prayer. God does not make it hard to have life after death. He invites everyone to put their faith in Him. For those who believe, death is not the end. It’s just the beginning. When we die, our spirits leave our bodies and we are immediately in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ returns, our bodies that have died will come back to life and our spirits will be reunited with perfect resurrected bodies down here on earth. We will rule with Christ for eternity over the renewed earth.
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