What things bring you joy during the season of Christmas? Friends, family, gift-giving, time off from work, and food often rank among the top of the list for many people. Yet even with all of these reasons to have joy, sadness and depression are at an all time high during the holidays. We would like to encourage you to turn in your Bible to Matthew 1:18-25, download the teaching notes, and listen to the sermon audio as Pastor Anton teaches on this passage of scripture. There are eternally-solid reasons for us to be filled with the Joy of the Lord this time of year. We hope that this message will help you to take your next spiritual step. 

Life doesn't often turn out the way we expect or plan, does it? Sometimes there are unexpected surprises that full us with joy and excitement... and there are other times when we are met with unplanned sorrow and grief.  In the New Testament Gospel of Luke, there is a Godly couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth. The author Luke explains that they were "righteous in the eyes of God, and that they were careful to obey all the commandments and regulations." However even though they were great Godly people, they still had one major heartache... they didn't have any children. And what is worse is that they were advanced in age. From a human viewpoint, it seemed as though their window of opportunity for being able to have a child of their own had all but closed. This cause much sadness and grief for the couple, and especially for Elizabeth. It is possible that you are reading this, and you have never had to deal with such heartache as childlessness, but all of us as humans have had our hopes and dreams crushed with unmet expectations. We would like to encourage you to turn in your Bible to Luke 1, download the teaching notes, and listen as Pastor Anton teaches on hope in the midst of sadness and unmet expectations. We trust that you will be blessed and encouraged. 

Have you ever considered "why" you were born in the era that you were? Have you ever considered the parents that you were born too, and the part of the world in which you grew up in? While we did not have an opportunity to choose any of these, we have the privilege and responsibility of answering it. And the only place to get the real TRUE answer to these questions is the Word of God, the Bible. We would like to encourage you to open your Bible to Esther 3, and download the teaching notes to follow along as Pastor Anton teaches on the Story of Esther. We hope and trust that you will be encouraged and challenged. 

Do you like a good fairy-tale story? Many in our culture do. The Book of Esther, written roughly in 470 B.C. and most like by Mordecai, contains all the setup to a great fairy-tale story. A wealthy king, a beautiful queen, a breathtaking palace, royal parties, an orphan girl, a beauty competition, and the young girl winning and becoming the new queen of Persia! At least is some of the basic highlights until you arrive at Esther 2:20. However the problem is this, the book of Esther is a real life story, and in real life, things rarely end "happily ever after." It is very important to note that a unique characteristic of the book is that the name of the Lord God is never mentioned, nor is He ever prayed to. Prayer is suggested, but never mentioned explicitly. Yet even with the absence of the mention of God, His handiwork and divine providence of the Lord is seen throughout.  We would like to encourage you to download the teaching notes, and turn in your own Bible as pastor Anton teaches on the Story of Esther, chapter 1. We trust that you will be encouraged.

When was the last time that you had an excellent dessert? Most of us were taught to clean our plate in order for us to be able to have our dessert as kids. Dessert was a reward for the "good eating" habits that we performed. In the story of Elijah, we see how the wicked King Ahab and Jezebel seem to do evil over and over again without having any consequence. In this final message in the 6-part series titled "Counter Culture" Pastor Anton teaches on what happened to Ahab and his vile wife Jezebel. We would like to encourage you to turn in your own Bible to 1 Kings 21 and download the teaching notes as you follow along. We hope and trust that you will be encouraged.