Whispering Pines Church

Join us this week as we continue to explore our expectations by looking at the very heart of Christ. Throughout the four gospels, there is only one place where Christ explicitly speaks of His own heart, Matthew 11. How we understand Christ will determine what we believe it looks like to follow Him. Is Christ a warrior or a rabbi? Quiet or loud? Join us as we examine our expectations, and see where Scripture leads us. - Pastor Nate Roschen Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Elder Jason Moat stepped in and taught us on how we can respond when Christ calls us .

Ekklesia: The Church: Part 2 This week in our continued look at the church and our expectations, we’ll explore what the church expects of us. We won’t find a demand to be busy, or perfect. What we will discover is a call to honesty and vulnerability, and a church that expects us to live as God has created us to be. As we look forward to gathering again this coming Sunday, I encourage you to reflect on Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae. Paul’s encouragement is to live as they are, to speak about the God that they know, and to allow the peace God promises to be expressed in their lives. -Pastor Nate Roschen Colossians 3:15-17 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the n

Ekklesia: The Church In our continued study of our own expectations, this week we turn to address the church itself. What are your beliefs about the church? What is the church supposed to accomplish? What role are you to play? We know, from the Greek word Ekklesia, that the church is not a building, but a people, a people who have been “called out.” Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are no longer foreigners and strangers, but members of God’s household. We are “being built together to become the dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” Join us as we explore our expectations of the church, and the implications of this body which Christ Himself established! Pastor Nate Roschen

Ekklesia: The Pastor - Part 2 This week, in our continued discussion of the role of pastors as shepherds after God’s own heart, we’ll look to our Good Shepherd in John 10. The analogy of a shepherd caring for sheep is a powerful one, and draws all of us to encounter the heart of Christ. We’ll also explore what a pastor ought to expect of us. How can we bless our shepherds? More than that, what role do we all play in our own spiritual growth, our sanctification, and as ministers of God ourselves? -Pastor Nate Roschen

Ekklesia - Part 1 - The Pastor We are launching into our new sermon series together! In this series we’re going to be talking about expectations within the church. What is a pastor? What is a church? What ought we to expect of Christ as we journey together, and what does He expect of us? In this 6-part series, we’ll explore our calling as the people of God to live as ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We’ll explore the roles we play, the ways we ought to encourage one another, and the goals we should share. I hope that you’ll join us as we re-frame and realign ourselves with a Scriptural understanding of the church. -Pastor Nate Roschen

Christmas Eve 2021 We celebrate Christ’s birth! It was a love that came down to us all at Christmas, a Lord and Savior to rescue us from evil and ignorance. The way God provided through Jesus is incredible, because instead of coming to earth in power, Christ came as a vulnerable infant. God chose this, intentionally, willfully, with His creation in mind. Join us as we celebrate our great God, and the grace given to us in Jesus Christ! -Pastor Nate Roschen

Love Came Down at Christmas: The Only Salvation Greetings! I hope that your celebration of Christmas this year allows you room to consider how great of a gift Christ’s coming truly was! Christ’s birth changed the lives of all those who were there to see it. Shepherds watching their flock by night became “rejoicers”, who also happened to tend sheep. Mary and Joseph became the caretakers of the infant Son of God, who also happened to be a teenage couple, betrothed to be married. So too, Christmas ought to change us. We all, on this side of Christmas, are defined by our relationship to Jesus Christ. Allow this relationship to define your identity this Christmas! - Pastor Nate Roschen

Love Came Down at Christmas: Mary & the Shepherds - Seeking to Believe Up until this point in this season of advent, we’ve looked at what God has done at Christmas. We see the angels declaring the good news, the greatest news, that God has come to earth, born as a child, Immanuel! God’s holiness and goodness demanded that something be done to make a way for His creation to be restored to Himself. This week, we’ll see the angels declare this news to Mary and a group of shepherds. Their responses inform our actions today. - Pastor Nate Roschen

Love Came Down at Christmas: Jesus Christ, Immanuel Immanuel - What an amazingly descriptive word to communicate the uniqueness of Jesus Christ! That word, Immanuel, communicates three distinctive qualities to us: Jesus is God, He is human, and He is with us. The all-powerful Lord and Creator of all became flesh, able to be known, and to be loved by those who followed Him! But this Immanuel could also be hurt, betrayed, and killed. Jesus experienced the fullness of all that we know, and feel, and do. He did this missionally, for a purpose. How will we encounter Jesus Christ, Immanuel, this Christmas? And how does the incarnation move us to love God and love others? - Pastor Nate Roschen

Love Came Down at Christmas: A Light Has Dawned From the moments after Adam and Eve first took a sinful bite from the forbidden fruit, humanity has sought a way to hide its shame, alleviate its pain, and redeem itself. Isaiah 9 tells us that people were living in darkness. Isaiah 8 tells us why… They were “looking toward the earth.” It is to that world that the light of Christmas comes, a people looking to solve their own problems, to fix, medicate, or escape from their sins. God had always promised to send this light, promising, in Genesis 3:15 that He would “crush the head” of Satan and defeat evil. - Pastor Nate Roschen

The Most Excellent Way As Christians we ought to desire what our God desires. We defend what God has made sacred. We hope for good things, and stand against evil. We are to be people who care a great deal about issues. Jesus spoke regularly and consistently about such things. One danger, however, is to concern ourselves so intently on the goal, that we lose sight of the means by which we achieve our goals. 1 Corinthians 13, often called “The Love Chapter” is all about the means. Without love, all that we do, work for, and accomplish is nothing. So, let us dedicate ourselves not only to the mission Christ has given to the church (Matt. 28:16-20), but also to the manner in which we live, operate, and follow Christ in this mission. This Sunday we look at the heart of Christ through the lens of 1 Corinthians 12 & 13. -Pastor Nate Roschen

Commissioning Service for Pastor Nate Roschen and affirmation of his calling to pastor the Whispering Pines Church Family

The Ultimate Goal We come to our last sermon in the Galatians series. And I wanted to express appreciation from Gretchen and myself for the nearly 9 months we have been with you. Your love and support to us has been wonderful. Although we haven’t been able to deal with each verse in Galatians, we have covered much of the epistle that Paul wrote to the church at Galatia. Today, what we will study will be from 6:14. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. In it we will understand the ultimate goal of all of us as Christians – to venerate and praise the LORD for the cross, for His incredible, unbelievable sacrificial death. Pastor Rick

We are rapidly coming to end of our Galatians study, and building on last two weeks of “Freedom to Love and Serve One Another,” and the emphasis last week of “WALKING in the Spirit”. This week we study Galatians 5:16-25 on the topic of Deeds of the Flesh versus the Fruit of the Spirit. It gives us a more specific idea of the specific behaviors and characteristics we may find in our lives depending on if we allow the flesh or the Spirit to have control. Pastor Rick

Ga 5:16-18 We have seen how important what we believe is in our desire to be people of God. The error of the Judaizers is evident as they tried to convince the Galatians to live following the Law of Moses, and especially to become circumcised. We saw last week that the conduct of our lives, that of through love, serve one another.” This week we learn the principle of setting a pattern in our lives, that of walking in a certain path, WALKING the way the LORD wants us to walk.

Elder Dwayne Gaeddert taught on our vision The Bible Centered Teaching. Pauls instructions to Timothy 2 Timothy 3:10-19 4:1-4

As we draw to the end of the Galatians epistle, we will move from the doctrinal to the practical. We find ourselves shifting from convincing the Galatians that they can’t be submitting to the theology of the Judaizers, or submitting to the Law or accepting circumcision to very practical practices. It seems that the error of the Galatians was more than theological. In one case they are giving up their freedom to the Judaizers, and submitting to the law and also now we see that they are giving up their freedom turning it into opportunities to be selfish. Paul will tell them that they need to be free, not do whatever selfishly they want to do, but to love and serve each other—WHAT A GREAT MESSAGE FOR US TODAY!

Abraham teaches us living by Faith and Grace There is no other individual that is more important to the three monotheistic religions than Abraham. We saw some of this when we studied Abraham in our treatment of Genesis. As we look today, we will again see the argument of the Apostle Paul, that the life of Abraham how it was not circumcision or obedience to the law but Abraham’s belief, his faith, that brought him favor with God.

That is not a very polite question to ask of another. But it is the emphasis of the v1 of Ch 3 in which Paul states “1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you ?” We will learn how the second tense of Salvation – that is Sanctification—is key in our relationship to the Lord.