Evangel Church PCA, Alabaster Alabama
  Evangel Church PCA, Alabaster Alabama
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  • Welcome
    • Visitors
    • Contact
    • Directions
    • Evangel Church Blog
    • Join our Email Lists!
    • Evangel Online Community >
      • Online SS BS HG
  • About
    • Upcoming Events!
    • Church Calendar
    • FAQ's
    • Our Beliefs & Values
    • Staff >
      • Pastoral Staff
      • Ministries Staff
      • Church Officers
    • History of Evangel
    • Becoming a Member at Evangel
  • Adult
    • Men's Ministry
    • Women's Ministry
    • Sunday Morning
    • Connect >
      • Home Groups
  • Children
    • Sunday School
    • Nursery
    • Special Needs
    • About our Children's Ministry
    • Children's Church
    • Evangel Kids (k4-4th)
    • 5th & 6th Grade Ministry
    • FosterAdoption
    • Trail Life USA
  • Youth
  • Missions
    • World Missions
    • Faith Promise Giving
    • Local Supported Missions >
      • Discovery Clubs
      • Oak Mountain Missions
      • Savalife
  • Worship
  • Giving
  • Resources
    • Salvation Messages
    • Evangel Sermon Archive
    • Covenant Theology
    • Bible Studies
    • The Christian Life
    • The Bible and the End Times
    • Grady Simpson
    • Rev. Jimmy Lyons
    • The Birth and Growth of the PCA- Dr. Baird
    • Church and State
    • AV Policy
  • Schools
    • Evangel Classical School
    • Evangel Christan School

How are Christians the salt and light of the world?

6/5/2020

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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
How are Christians the salt and light of the world?
​

"You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world"
(Matthew 5:13-14)   


Jesus Christ spent three years teaching before giving His life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and save those who would repent and follow Him - those referred to in Scripture as “His sheep". During that time, Jesus revealed who He was through His miracles and perfect obedience to God. He was revealed as and proved to be the Son of God and God in the flesh.  What He taught revolved around exposing sinfulness and explaining how God commands us to live. The terms “salt” and “light” are first descriptions of Jesus and also those who truly follow Him.  


The Scripture teaches when a person truly believes in Jesus, they begin turning away from their sin and obeying His teachings.  This is known as repentance, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life. The person that obeys habitually is the one whose eyes have been opened to his sinfulness and his hopelessness. This draws him to the incredible offer of forgiveness that Jesus’ death provides and His promise of eternal life in Heaven. He or she trusts in Him and begins to separate themselves from evil and obey Jesus in a serious and deliberate manner. This reflects the new life described in Scripture.  

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come,” and Ephesians 4:24 says, “Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.


Salt preserves and makes food taste good. Likewise the Christian’s new life is to be a blessing in society in contrast to the moral decay in our sin-infected world. Unlike the world, he or she is to be humble, faithful, caring, honest, sincere and pure. Their consistent desire to do good reveals the character of Jesus to the world. 
 
Light, in this passage, describes enabling one to see or understand. Those around us must not only hear our good words, but they must see our good works so that they may be convinced of the truth and excellency of Jesus and the Christian faith. Seeing Christ-likeness in us, they may be compelled to believe and imitate the good works God does through us and glorify God themselves. Like the positive effects of salt and light the Christian through his or her character and good works are to be a positive influence in the world. They become a guiding light to Jesus.


Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Do you have this  wonderful light?    Let your light shine!


At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to come to Jesus and be salt and light.  All are welcome!  

Colby Reeves - Evangel Member


Evangel Church PCA
423 Thompson Rd.
Alabaster, AL. 35007  

205-664-0889
evangelchurchpca.org
 

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What does Jesus mean when He calls us to "follow Me" in Matthew 16?

4/23/2020

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What does Jesus mean when He calls us to "follow Me" in Matthew 16?

"If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me for he that saves his life will lose it and he that loses his life, for My sake will save it" (Matt 16:24-25).

If self-denial is a hard lesson, it is no more than what our Master learned and practiced to redeem us, and to teach us. A true disciple of Christ is one that follows Him in duty, and will follow Him to glory. Our cross in this passage represents the self denial in our new life of submission to Jesus.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies (lives) as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship" (Romans 12:1).

"If a person follows Jesus, they must voluntarily renounce everything that might hinder their discipleship."

They must follow in his footsteps as the sheep after the shepherd, the servant after his master, the soldiers after their captain; so much so that our life becomes Christ living in us. (Matthew Henry)

This passage speaks of submitting to the changed life that following Jesus demands and of those that are willing and those who are not. The Christian's call is to sacrifice or put to death, His own will and to live for Christ, His Church and His ministry. In Matt 4:17 Jesus said “repent” which is to turn from our will and trust in his. The person who preserves his old life will lose it in eternity. The one who gives up his old life to follow Christ will find eternal life and this is the meaning of our verse (see also Mark 10:28-30).

In Matt 7:20-22 Jesus says, "Many in that day (the day of His return) will cry out to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but will not enter in (Heaven), but the one that does the will of the Father will enter. This again confirms we cannot simply follow our own will but must study and do God’s will. "Hypocrisy will be judged harshly (Read Matt 22:11-14). Jesus asked, “What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” (Matt 16:26). Every person has a soul of their own. The soul lives in us now and will continue after death. Our life now determines the soul’s life eternally. "He is no fool that gives up a life he cannot keep for one he cannot lose"(Jim Elliot - missionary).

Jesus' first command to his Disciples was "Follow Me" and it is the path of all who truly believe. Is your name in His book of eternal life? It is if you truly believe in Jesus.

Colby Reeves - Evangel Member
​
At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to follow Jesus.

All are welcome! 

Evangel Church PCA 
423 Thompson Rd.
Alabaster, AL. 35007
​205-664-0889
evangelchurchpca.org
Bible Studies at Evangel
New to Evangel?
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Why do Christians Celebrate Easter

3/24/2020

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Easter is the most important event in the Christian calendar. It celebrates God raising his son Jesus from the dead, after dying on the cross for our sins. 


The foretelling of Easter began in Genesis 3 saying, "one will come to crush the serpent's head". Isaiah 53:5 gives more specific details. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible are accounts of the actual event and referred to as the gospel of Jesus. And this is the gospel.... 


Living with God requires the absence of sin, but 


Romans 3:23 says, "all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" and 


Romans 6:23a, "the wages of sin is death; 


The breaking of any of God's commands brings guilt, yet we break many every day. Jesus taught that sin not only refers to our actions but our words and thoughts. Jesus sees all that is in our heart. The Gospel continues.... 


Romans 6:23b, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". Matthew 20:28, “ just as the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." God, through Jesus' sinless life and death on the cross, provided a way for humanity to live with Him forever. Jesus' perfect life qualified him as an acceptable sacrifice for our sin debt. Because of this, in John 14:6, "Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the father but by me." 


So what is required of us to have our sins forgiven and be joined with God? Romans 10:9 says, "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." When we sincerely trust in Jesus, our sin is removed by his sacrifice on the cross and His righteousness is given to us for entry into Heaven. 


Jesus' resurrection and victory over death is what Christians celebrate at Easter. For just as He was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday, we also who sincerely follow Him will be raised. Come, willing to trust and follow Jesus and he will give you true and eternal life. 


At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn more about receiving eternal life. All are welcome!


Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd. 
Alabaster, AL. 35007 - 205-664-0889 
Sunday School 9 am - Worship Service 10:15 am 
evangelchurchpca.org

Learn more about Evangel
Bible studies at Evangel
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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE -HOW DOES GOD BECOME MY FATHER?

1/24/2020

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​THE CHRISTIAN LIFE -
HOW DOES GOD BECOME MY FATHER?
​
"Sermon on the Mount" M. Lloyd-Jones

How then does God become my Father? According to the Scriptures it is like this. Christ “came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power (i.e. authority) to become the sons of God” (John 1:11-12). You become a child of God only when you are born again, when you receive a new life and a new nature. The child partakes of the nature of the Father. God is holy, and you and I are not children of God until we have received a holy nature; and that means we must have a new nature. Being evil and even conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5), we do not have one, but He will give it to us. Now that is what is offered to us. And there is no contact or communion with God, nor are we heirs to any of these promises of God, until we become His children. In other words, we must remember that we have sinned against God, that we deserve the wrath and punishment of God, but that He has dealt with our sin and guilt by sending His son to die on the cross of Calvary for us. And believing in Him, we receive a new life and nature and become children of God. Then we can know that God is our Father, but not until then. 

So, how does God become my Father? The answer is illustrated in this story.

There was a man who was very skilled in balancing himself while walking a tightrope, so he had a cable stretched across Niagara Falls. A large crowd gathered to watch his performance on this high wire stretched across the thundering waterfall. Many in the crowd wondered if he would make it, or would he slip and fall to his death? The performer mounted the cable and with great skill he crossed the roaring chasm and returned. Then he asked the crowd if there was anyone who trusted him enough to let him carry them on his back across and safely return. The crowd was silent. Finally one man stepped forward expressing his trust in this man. With the man mounted on his back, the performer successfully crossed the falls and returned. 

This is how God becomes our Father. Christ has already crossed the chasm of death by His own resurrection from the dead. He stands ready to carry anyone across the chasm between death and eternal life who will trust in him alone for their salvation. How about you? Have you trusted in Christ alone for Salvation? You can trust Him now. He will not refuse you.  - Rev. Grady Simpson

At Evangel Church we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to trust Jesus. 
​All are welcome! 

​Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd.
Alabaster, AL. 35007  -  205-664-0889
evangelchurchpca.org
Bible Studies at Evangel
Learn More About Evangel
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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE- Why do we celebrate Christmas?

12/9/2019

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​THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
Why do we celebrate Christmas?

   
In chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis
, we have the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness of our first parents, Adam and Eve. We see the grace and favor of God and the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good; but in chapter 3 the scene changes. We have here an account of the sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its beauty stained and soiled, all bad, very bad. 

 
Our
Creator gave but one command to preserve our innocence. "Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you do you will surely die." Innocent Eve was deceived and tempted to doubt God by Satan through the serpent. She and Adam yielded to that temptation, that is they willfully sinned against God. Their innocence was lost and their sin nature born. Judgment was pronounced: Banishment from the Garden of Eden now and eventual death. This was a sentence against them and their offspring, all humanity, or "the Fall" of man. 

   
This is the condition we're born into
, slaves to sin and bound to death--lovers of the world and its values and not lovers of God. A child does not have to be taught disobedience. It's in the DNA. Genesis 3:15 tells us that though the world now is Satan's domain there will be one to come, a Savior. Through Him God will restore hatred (enmity) of evil (the world) and love for Him in His people.  

 
God initially provided the system of animal sacrifice to show the cost of sin, which is death and how
His people would be saved, through the death of another. It is said that at the annual Passover in Jerusalem blood flowed like a river from the sacrifices made for so much sin, but they were only temporary substitutes allowed until the real sacrifice came. In the Gospels of the New Testament, we're told of that coming. Jesus came in obedience to God's plan to pay a sin debt He did not owe. As God the Son, He broke no commands and gave His life as a ransom for all who would repent and follow Him, promising His Holy Spirit to enable them. God accepted His payment by raising Him from the dead and restoring Him to Heaven, and you also will be raised from the dead and restored to heaven if you follow Him. 

  
At Christmas we celebrate the fulfilling of God's promise in the birth of
Jesus, the gift of Eternal life (Matthew 1-2). It requires our willingness to turn from sinning and live as He teaches in faith (Mark 1:15). Repent and trust in Jesus sincerely, and He will give you His spirit to live this new life and seal your future in heaven. Come!   


Colby Reeves - Evangel Member
 
At Evangel we offer various Bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to understand repentance and trust in Jesus.  All are welcome! (See website or call)

Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd.

Alabaster, AL. 35007  - 205-664-0889
evangelchurchpca.org


Bible Studies at Evangel
Learn More about Evangel
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Operation Christmas Child- Evangel Church PCA

11/2/2019

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How to Pack
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Evangel Church Thanksgiving Outreach supporting the Downtown Jimmie Hale Mission

10/29/2019

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Click to Give Online
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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE    Are we truly thankful?

10/25/2019

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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE         

 Are we truly thankful?


Washington's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation (delivered in New York, 3 October 1789)

“By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.  Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” 

This is the first part of George Washington's Thanksgiving Day proclamation in 1789, requested by Congress, acknowledging God as the giver of all things good and everyone's duty to acknowledge, obey and be grateful for our freedom and his blessing.  Do we understand this today?   Though God's goodness is easily seen, our sins make us incompatible with a Holy God. "The wages of sin is death" (Roman's 6:23). Our sin debt makes entry to heaven impossible (as stated in Matthew 19:26) and God's goodness all the more amazing.      

Genesis 3 says Adam and Eve rebelled and brought sin and death to us.  Yet God, out of goodness, alludes to a Savior who was revealed fully in the New Testament as Jesus, the Son of God. He came in obedience to the Father's plan and took on himself the penalty of sin that we deserve, and He died on the cross and now credits His perfect righteousness to those who will believe and follow him. That's right! When we repent and trust in Christ, He credits His death as payment for our sin and gives us His righteousness for entry into heaven. The result is, we no longer obey out of fear but out of love and gratitude.

As Thanksgiving approaches and we remember the thanks due to God, may we realize the full extent of His blessing through Jesus and the obedience due to Him which reveals true thankfulness (see Romans 12:1-2 and John 14:15).  Delay no longer if you don't know Jesus. Come sincerely willing to trust and follow Him and He will receive you with an everlasting love. 

Colby Reeves - Evangel Member

Evangel we offer various Bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how to live for Jesus. 
All are welcome!  


Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd.
Alabaster, AL. 35007 - 205-664-0889

evangelchurchpca.org
Bible Studies at Evangel
Learn More about Evangel
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Evangel Church Pumpkin Palooza!  Join us!  Fun for all ages!

10/6/2019

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How should Christian's react to a world full of self centeredness ?

9/19/2019

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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

How should Christian's react to a world full of self centeredness ?

When Jesus was asked “Who is my neighbor?” He replied with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke10:30-37). This parable has stood the test of time. It reminds us of how we should help our neighbors, who as the parable shows, is anyone around us that has a need. It is so famous, states have named laws “Good Samaritan” laws to protect those who try and help others. But while we may know of the parable, do we remember the extent of the help? Jesus chooses a Samaritan because all the Jews of Jesus day would have hated him. And yet he is the good neighbor who does good works even for his enemy as Jesus tells us to do in Luke 6:27. Yet he not only nurses all the wounds of this stranger who hates him but he goes the extra mile by paying for a place for him to rest and anything else that he might need. “Going the extra mile” is another saying that Jesus gave us in Matthew 5:41. And this is how we are to help others, even if they are our enemies. We should not just help but we should do everything we can to meet their need completely. This is the difference between giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish. The difference between us feeding the poor on holidays and feeding them every day. The difference between helping an orphan in need and making that orphan our child. We see this when Christians reach out to children through Fostering and Adoption.We see this when they want to help inner cities and move to that area in order to help every day. We even see missionaries moving to other countries and plant churches that not only spread the gospel, but also help the local people by training them in ways to provide for themselves. These are just some of the ways that Jesus told us to help our neighbors and if we love Him, we will love our neighbors by meeting their needs completely. In Philippians 2:4 Paul says to consider the interest of others as more important than our own. He demonstrates this in the next few verses by showing how Jesus, though in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but humbled Himself and 
became obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross. When God saw our need of a Savior, He responded in love. We needed a Savior and through death Jesus became that Savior. We should be thankful that like the Good Samaritan, he met our need completely. So if we love Jesus, let us show it by loving our neighbor and doing 
good for them as Christ did for us. For anything less is not truly loving our neighbor.
 
Marty Hayes - Evangel Member

 
At Evangel we offer various bible studies by our Pastors and Elders to learn further how be a 
good neighbor.
All are welcome! (See website)
​

Evangel Church PCA - 423 Thompson Rd.
Alabaster, AL. 35007   205-664-0889
evangelchurchpca.org
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423 Thompson Road ​
Alabaster Al, 35007

205.664.0889​

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