Recent Articles and Sermons

The First Three Shepherds of Israel

by Pastor Don Elmore

October 26, 2014

Scripture Reading: Numbers 28:15-23

We are near the ending of the 40 years of wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness after their miraculous exodus from Egypt.  It is almost time for them to cross the Jordan River and to do battle against the inhabitants of the Promised Land.  They had already completely destroyed all of the Amorites who were living on the East portion of the Jordan River. 

by Pastor Don Elmore

Part 1 The First Three Shepherds of Israel:  Israel had a government that no other nation on the face of the earth ever had.  It was known as a Theocracy.  It was in existence for about 1400 years but Israel wanted another kind of government.  They rejected God as their King so they could be like all the other nations.

Part 2 The Big Question: how many years was Israel under a theocracy?  When did they switch to a Monarchy?  The Bible tells a fantastic story of Israel's history. What is the major question that the average Christian doesn't even know?  Find out when you read this sermon.

Part 3 The Books of the Bible:  Ken Hamm equates "inter-racial" marriage with the marriage of a Christian with a non-Christian.  What is wrong with this?  And who were the people who plotted and attempted to kill Jesus Christ, according to the Bible?

by Pastor Mark Downey

October 19, 2014

Scripture Reading: John 1:1-5

Last September our church went to Indiana for a picnic lunch and to visit the wife of a dear friend of ours who died suddenly in a terrible auto accident about a year ago.   Well, the womenfolk gravitated to the living room and the men were outside talking Christian Identity.  I moseyed into the house and saw all the women, so I sat next to my wife and asked what have you been talking about and she said, “an interesting discussion about heaven,” to which I replied by putting my arm around her and saying, “Well, here's a little slice of heaven for ya.”  And all of a sudden, they all broke out in hysterical laughter, much to my perplexing chagrin.  I asked what are they laughing about?  Evidently, they were into a serious subject and in walks a man who makes a rather flippant remark that breaks the ice.  Later, my wife suggested I do a sermon on heaven and voila, I have a ready-made title ready to go.  Many of us have lost loved ones in recent times so I think this message will not only help me with the loss of my mother and father, but others I know who are going through the same experience.  I got to thinking that I haven't read anything in CI about heaven since Pastor Sheldon Emry.  It's probably because the Bible doesn't say a whole lot about the heaven, which we know as God's abode, although heaven can mean many other things, in spite of a plethora of denominational garbage that takes way too much latitude in preying upon people's emotions, failing to rightly divide the word of truth.  Heaven sometimes just means the sky or an elevated place of authority.  And there's probably nothing more ingrained in people's psyche than what they think about the hereafter, other than perhaps Christmas.  It's a tough nut to crack. 

by Pastor Brian Jones

October 12, 2014

Scripture Reading: Galatians 6:5-10

Overall Lesson: We make mistakes, but God doesn't give up on us! Samson had the power to kill 1000 men, but it took one woman to bring him down. Available in Audio only. The following verses are explored:

Judges 13:1-5 Samson is chosen to be a deliverer of Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.

Judges 14:1-4 Samson craved after a wife from the Philistine women against his parent's wishes

Judges 14:5-9 Samson killed a lion. Later Samson found honey in the body of the lion, for bees had made their comb there. He took the honey out of the carcass and also gave some honey to his parents, even though he wasn't supposed to touch the carcass.

Judges 14:10-18 Samson gives the Philistine men a riddle which they couldn't answer. The Philistine men went to Samson's Philistine wife to find out the answer.

Judges 14:19-20 Samson kills and steals

• Proverbs 5:1-23 Lesson for sons to not marry a 'stranger'
• Psalm 27:11-12 Asking God to teach us His ways

by Pastor Don Elmore

October 5, 2014

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Who is today's Scripture reading about?  When is this going to happen or has it already happened?  “They shall turn away their ears from the truth” means that they will not listen to the historical, biblical account, but instead they would believe a foolish or improbable story.

Did that happen in Timothy’s day or has it reoccurred over and over down through the centuries?  I used to belong to a church that taught that the Laws of God were nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ.  That, they said, meant that we do not have to obey His laws because they are now put away--abolished.  The only thing that now matters is Jesus and you must believe in Him.  I don’t think they considered the consequences of this doctrine!

by Pastor Don Elmore

August 24, 2014

Scripture Reading:  Revelation 18:4

The Church and its Music

The church began with their singing of the Psalms that are found in the middle of their Bible.  The Psalms were put to music and the congregation sang the praises to our God.  Over the last several hundreds of years new hymns were written; some good, some bad.  But in the last fifty years, something new has slipped into the churches:  the singing of rock ‘n’ roll.  The church is drawing closer and closer to the world and not to God.  The church is serving other gods and not the God of the Bible.  The church has learned the way of the heathen.

By Pastor Everett Ramsey

How did the state of Nebraska bring a civil action against the Faith Baptist Church?  How did the pastor wind up in jail and the deacons come in jeopardy?  All good questions since the Constitution protects religion and individuals.  A simple answer is we were incorporated under the laws of Nebraska.  I was the president of the corporation and the deacons were the officers and trustees.  Incorporation of churches began about seventy years ago, all stemming from wrong motives:  Denominations started mission churches including investing money and time.  To protect their investments, they incorporated and put the new assets of the new churches in the corporation to prevent them from being taken in the event the young work failed or in the event the people decided to break off from the mother denomination and become an independent church. 

Another justifying rationale was that the corporation limited the liability of its officers to the assets of the corporation, if the corporation was ever sued.  Of course, all these reasons violated Biblical principles concerning personal responsibility and liability in relationship to God and man.  What we did not realize was that a corporation is the creation of a state government.  Therefore, the entire church became a licensed operation of the state.

by Pastor Mark Downey

September 28, 2014

Scripture Reading:  Luke 14:15-24

You might be wondering what today's Scripture reading, the parable of the great supper, has to do with the sermon title, a #1 hit song from 1963; the year the jews assassinated Camelot.  The song was written by Wiener, Gold, Gottlieb and Gluck, which sounds like a jewish law firm.  It was sung by Lesley Sue Goldstein, also known as Lesley Gore.  Maybe somebody has made the same or similar observations as I have, but I like to think this song has gone unanalyzed until now.  One can only probe the subconscious mind of the jew with the assistance of the Holy Spirit to read between the lines.  I originally titled this message 'Have You Got Your Invitation Yet?' and then I heard this song in my head in a nostalgic moment for no apparent reason.  Now I know why... thank you Lord, it's the perfect antithesis or maybe antichrist.  The distinctions between the parable and the song are somewhat uncanny. 

by Pastor Don Elmore

September 21, 2014

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:14-15:

The Foursquare Church is continuing the vision of Aimee Semple McPherson to reach out to the Jewish community through the efforts, service, and support of the Foursquare Rabbis Caucus. “It is important at this stage that we carefully nurture the seed of Messianic hope that's been planted here tonight,” said Kurt Reust, a licensing Foursquare Messianic leader from The Rock, a Foursquare Church in Anaheim, California.

This Inaugural Messianic Passover Seder is intended to be the first of many. As the Foursquare Rabbis Caucus grows and matures, it hopes to sponsor similar events in order to build bridges between the Messianic Movement and the Church, bringing together Jew and Gentile to further the Kingdom of God. “For God Himself is our peace, who made both  groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall... that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” Ephesians 2:14-15.

by Pastor Mark Downey

September 14, 2014

Scripture Reading: John 1:6-9

We've been looking at the sacred cow of full body immersion baptism.  Baptism is not really the best word, biblically speaking, for the practice of submerging oneself in a body of water.  I think what has happened is cognitive dissonance; when two things are so similar that the original intent is ignored for something else.  Our race has suffered from being shortchanged on important principles of biblical events such as the Flood account of Noah being borrowed by non-Adamic cultures.  After awhile, every stranger has their 'flood' legend, and the presumption becomes that it was worldwide, rather than local. If baptism is something other than water immersion, then their New Testament exegesis of Old Testament types and shadows cannot be supported.  They try to incorporate the parting of the Red Sea as some sort of baptizo on the Israelites, however, if you recall, it was Pharaoh's army that experienced the full body immersion.  And it was not Noah and his family that received the full body immersion during the flood.  The principle of the original has been lost or is not recognized. Just as God's chosen people don't know who they are, we have a situation today where the wrong people are calling themselves Israel.  It behooves us, therefore, to identify the principles of baptism from Genesis to Revelation.