Thoughts of Josh Dryer

Believe In Christmas: Joseph Believed Matthew 1:18-25 Introduction The theme…I believe in Christmas! Each family has their own traditions for Christmas. What’s the point of Christmas? I am going to tell you an ancient story. One that includes many spectacular things. An angry king who is afraid of losing his throne and is willing to do anything including murder to keep it. Shepherds who witness an act of God and come seeking His face. Men who come from a far off place seeking out answers to the questions they have from the placement of the stars. All of this begins in a small village town called Nazareth. A young woman who is engaged to be married receives a visit from a messenger from God. She will become pregnant with a child.   A young man is faced with the choice of believing in the impossible and walking by faith in God or acting on his own understanding. This couple is chosen by God to raise His only Son, to parent the Messiah of the world. What God planned since ...

Luke 1:26-56 Believe in Christmas Mary Believed Introduction Last week we were challenged by the Lord to worship Him with hopeful expectation. We asked ourselves: Do I worship the Lord expecting the radical transformation of my heart and life? Do I believe His promises in the Bible and make decisions based on it? Last week, Zechariah acted like many of us act: in a faith-lacking way. In today’s passage, Mary will exemplify faith, trusting in God regardless of the circumstances. Today’s primary question: Will I trust in God no matter the circumstances? Let’s look at the circumstances of Mary’s life…   :26-33 A Confusing Message 26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. Gabriel, God’s angel for the sharing of big events, is sent by God to an obscure town in Galilee named Nazareth....

Psalm 107:1-3 “Give Thanks” Introduction Big Idea: Give thanks for He is good!  On Thanksgiving, we have the opportunity to consider the things for which we are thankful… As you can see, many of our Fifth Street family members are thankful to the Lord. He sure is gracious to us and I am thankful for that! Sometimes we are thankful for things that didn’t happen again, right? Twitter shared their 20 best Thanksgiving horror stories and I’ve picked out six for you! Thought I’d somehow forgotten to order most of the ingredients I needed for thanksgiving cooking. Turns out my husband just forgot to get any of them out of his trunk 7 hours ago. Botulism here we come! The oven door just broke off mid turkey bake #thanksgivingfail First Thanksgiving, forgot to take the liver, neck and giblets out of the body of the turkey. Also salt instead of sugar in the pumpkin pies. Next Thanksgiving was at my sister-in-law’s. She set her deck on fire frying the turkey. Our cat ate a chunk o...

John 12:27-50 “Passover Lamb Pt. 3” Proclamation Introduction Jesus continues speaking to the folks gathered around Him. At this time, Jesus clearly proclaims His role as the Lamb of God, who God sent to take away the sins of the world. The Purpose of the Lamb (:27-36) 27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. The hour of which Jesus speaks is his hour of suffering and glorification. Isaiah 53 is an OT passage written by the prophet Isaiah about the Messiah whom God would send for His people. This passage perfectly describes the sacrifice that Jesus, the Lamb of God, would make in the next few days. Read Is 53. When Jesus considered this tremendous sacrifice and the things that He would endure on our behalf, it troubled Him. This is the kind of gut-wrenching, emotionally disturbing feeling that makes us sick to our stomach. Jesus’ statement reminds us that He is both God...

 “Passover Lamb - The Presentation” John 12:12-19 Introduction This is the day each family selected the Passover lamb 4 days later, they sacrificed the lamb. They kept it 4 days to remember being saved from God’s wrath. Is Jesus your Passover Lamb? The Presentation of the Lamb (:12-18) 12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Jesus leaves Bethany after Mary anoints his feet with oil and travels to Jerusalem, which John reports was very that close a “large to Bethany. crowd” also traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Scholars report that the crowd probably grew to hundreds of thousands of people during the city the of week Jerusalem of Passover was crowded celebration. and the land was cluttered with families who These set hundreds up camps of for thousands their stay of in people the city gathered for Passover. together to greet Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. That’s a lot ...

John 11:47-57 “Atonement" In last week’s miracle, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. " 45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in  Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done."  John 11:45-46 - The road to hell is paved with good intentions. (:47-48) 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”    Have you ever heard this quote: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”? This is an English proverb. A proverb is a short, memorable phrase that presents a deeper truth. According to Grammarist, “the proverb means that trying to do something good often has consequences which make things worse. For instance, kudzu is a beautiful vine f...

I AM the Resurrection and the Life John 11:1-46   - Lazarus died for the glory of God and for our benefit (:1-16) 1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” John shifts our focus to a place called Bethany, which was near Jerusalem. There is a small family composed of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus Lazarus (whose full Hebrew name was Eleazar, which means “God assists) is sick. Mary and Martha are the sisters who welcomed Jesus into their home a while back (Lk 10:38-42). While Jesus was there, Martha worked hard to serve Him and Mary sat at His feet and listened to His teaching. Martha grew indignant because Mary wasn’t helping her and asked Jesus to scold her. Jesus did not scold Mary. He told Martha that Mary wa...