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Alcaraz,Roger

I first came to Lighthouse in 2005 because some college friends invited me.  I was so convicted of the messages and of my sinful living that I left the church for a few months.  Thankfully, a friend from Lighthouse reached out to me and shared the hope we have in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  God granted me faith and repentance and soon after, I became a member and since then have called Lighthouse my home.  I am also currently attending The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles.  As the Lumos coordinator I’ve been able serve and hopefully bless our youth ministry. I absolutely love the people there and though life can get demanding, ministering to them has never been a burden.  I am happy that God has seen fit to bless me by allowing this ministry to bring much joy and comfort in life.

Favorite Christian Book:  The Cup and the Glory by Greg Harris

Favorite Verse:  1 Samuel 12:22

2010 LBC Lumos Audio

Hey guys!

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve last typed anything here, but I’ve wanted to put a new update on the messages that have been recorded over the past number of months. The majority of the recorded audio for this year is now available for download or stream online! It’s been a helpful experience re-listening to some of the messages Pastor J.R. (and now Roger!) have given to the youth and converting them into an MP3 file, which makes it 1/3 the size of the file than it was originally (in WMA format). Without further ado, here they are:

Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 5: The End of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (1.10.2010)

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 1: The Reality of Sin (J.R. Cuevas) (1.17.2010)

Mirror-Images of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (1.22.2010)

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 2: The Transmission of Sin (Original Sin) (J.R. Cuevas) (1.24.2010)

Christian Ministers (J.R. Cuevas) (1.29.2010)

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 3: The Impact of Sin (Total Depravity) (J.R. Cuevas) (1.31.2010)

Godly Grief and True Repentance (Roger Alcaraz) (2.5.2010)

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 4: The Unforgivable Sin (Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit) (J.R. Cuevas) (2.7.2010)

Christ is Supreme, Christ is Sufficient (J.R. Cuevas) (2.12.2010)

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 5: The Reason for Sin and Evil (Theodicy) (J.R. Cuevas) (2.14.2010)

Is Life Meaningless? (J.R. Cuevas) (2.19.2010)

Christology: The Doctrine of Christ, Part 1: The Deity of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (2.21.2010)

The Vanity of Life Without God (J.R. Cuevas) (2.26.2010)

Christology: The Doctrine of Christ, Part 2: The Humanity of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (2.28.2010)

God is Opposed to the Proud, but Gives Grace to the Humble (John Yang) (3.5.2010)

The Vanity of Life (J.R. Cuevas) (4.16.2010)

Redeeming Your Life (J.R. Cuevas) (4.23.2010)

Who Do You Say I Am (J.R. Cuevas) (4.30.2010)

Can You Handle the Truth (J.R. Cuevas) (5.7.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 1: Common Grace (J.R. Cuevas) (5.9.2010)

The Cost of Discipleship (J.R. Cuevas) (5.14.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 2: Salvation by Election (J.R. Cuevas) (5.16.2010)

Necessary Steps of the Christian Faith (Roger Alcaraz) (5.21.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 3: Salvation by Calling (J.R. Cuevas) (5.23.2010)

Why Follow Jesus (J.R. Cuevas) (6.4.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 4: The Conversion of Salvation – Repentance and Faith (J.R. Cuevas) (6.6.2010)

The Transfiguration (J.R. Cuevas) (6.11.2010)

Encouragement for Cole and Jenna (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (6.18.2010)

Q&A (Roger Alcaraz & J.R. Cuevas) (6.20.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 5: Regeneration (J.R. Cuevas) (6.27.2010)

Youth Retreat Session 1: Stepping Heavenward (J.R. Cuevas) (7.2.2010)

Youth Retreat Session 3 (J.R. Cuevas) (7.3.2010)

Youth Retreat Session 4 (J.R. Cuevas) (7.4.2010)

I Am the Bread of Life (Roger Alcaraz) (7.16.2010)

I Am the Light of the World (Roger Alcaraz) (7.23.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 6: Justification (Roger Alcaraz) (7.25.2010)

I Am (Roger Alcaraz) (7.30.2010)

I Am the Door (Roger Alcaraz) (8.6.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 7: Adoption (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (8.8.2010) [teacher notes]

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, We Are the Sheep (Roger Alcaraz) (8.13.2010)

Life After Death (Roger Alcaraz) (8.20.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 8: Sanctification (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (9.5.2010)

The Call to Abide (Roger Alcaraz) (9.10.2010)

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation, Part 9: Glorification (Chris Tou) (9.12.2010)

Running the Race of Faith (Roger Alcaraz) (9.17.2010)

Angelology: The Doctrine of Angels (Roger Alcaraz) (9.26.2010)

The Greatness of Christ (Roger Alcaraz) (10.1.2010)

Demonology: The Doctrine of Demons (Roger Alcaraz) (10.3.2010)

Gospel Training, Part 1: God (Roger Alcaraz) (10.8.2010)

Following Christ (Roger Alcaraz) (10.10.2010)

Gospel Training, Part 2: Man (Roger Alcaraz) (10.15.2010)

Following Christ His Way (Roger Alcaraz) (10.17.2010)

Gospel Training, Part 3: Christ (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (10.22.2010)

Jesus Sends Out the 72 (Roger Alcaraz) (10.24.2010)

A Stern Warning (Roger Alcaraz) (10.31.2010)

Gospel Training, Part 4: Response (Roger Alcaraz) (11.12.2010)

The Security of Salvation (Roger Alcaraz) (11.14.2010)

Evangelism Training, Part 1: The ‘Why’ and the ‘What’ of the Gospel (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (11.20.2010) [handout]

Evangelism Training, Part 2: The ‘Who’ and the ‘How’ of Evangelism (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (11.20.2010)

3 Lessons Learned in Seminary (Roger Alcaraz) (11.21.2010)

There are a few missing messages that are not included, and will hopefully be updated soon, but from the 3rd session from youth reatreat, all the messages are updated and ready to download. I hope this is of great help to all who listen.

Posted by Cesar 

Abortion

Hey guys!
So, since we covered the issue of life and when life begins, I thought this article would be of help to you all. It deals with how Exodus 21:22-24 addresses the issue of abortion. I really hope you guys are blessed by this (as well as yesterday’s message from P.J.R.) and also see this as an exercise in looking to Scripture to be able to address any situation you face yourselves in by looking to principles that God lays out and growing in godly wisdom to have that guide your daily decisions. Love you all!

An Eye for an Eye? Exodus and Abortion by James White

Posted by Cesar

LBC Lumos Audio Available for Download

Hey guys! Just to make things look somewhat updated on this website (sorry I’m not a great website developer), I was sent a great site that allows you to send audio for all to download from! So now if you want to download one of the messages from our youth group, now you can! I have some of the most recent audio ready for you guys to download from. Just rick-click on your mouse, and hit ‘save target as…’ and that’s it! So here’s all the downloadable audio you can choose from (sorry I don’t have all of them…most are on my desktop which I can’t access just yet, and there’s a small gap of sermons that are missing from July and August):

Youth Retreat, Session 3: Know Your Team (J.R. Cuevas) (6.20.09)
Youth Retreat, Session 4: Know Your Calling (J.R. Cuevas) (6.21.09)
John the Baptist at His Lowest (J.R. Cuevas) (6.26.09)
The Attributes of God, Part 33: The Glory of God (Part 2) In the OT (J.R. Cuevas) (6.28.09)
Singing for God’s Glory (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (7.5.09)
The Attributes of God, Part 34: The Glory of God (Part 3) In the NT (J.R. Cuevas) (9.6.09)
The Four Soils (J.R. Cuevas) (9.11.09)
Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 1: The Word of God (J.R. Cuevas) (9.13.09)
Are You Listening? (J.R. Cuevas) (9.18.09)
Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 2: The Inspiration of Scripture (J.R. Cuevas) (9.20.09)
Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 3: The Authority of Scripture (J.R. Cuevas) (9.27.09)
True, Saving Faith (J.R. Cuevas) (10.2.09)
Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 4: The Inerrancy of Scripture (J.R. Cuevas) (10.4.09)
Who is This? (J.R. Cuevas) (10.9.09)
Disciplines of a Godly Man, Part 6: Mind (Chris Tou) (10.11.09)
Jesus – Son of God, Lover of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (10.16.09)
Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 5: The Sufficiency of Scripture (Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (10.18.09)
Outstanding Faith (J.R. Cuevas) (10.23.09)
Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 1: The Origin of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (10.25.09)
Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 2: The Variety of Man as Male and Female (J.R. Cuevas) (11.1.09)
All Things, God Works for Good (John Yang) (11.13.09)
Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 3: The Constitution of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (11.15.09)
Divine Sovereignty (J.R. Cuevas) (11.20.09)
Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 4: The Personhood of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (11.22.09)
Missions Testimonies: China & Argentina (David Pat & Cesar Vigil-Ruiz) (12.4.09)
The Necessary Heart for Missions (J.R. Cuevas) (12.4.09)
Disciplines of a Godly Man: Devotion (J.R. Cuevas) (12.6.09)
Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man, Part 5: The End of Man (J.R. Cuevas) (1.10.10)
Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 1: The Reality of Sin (J.R. Cuevas) (1.17.10)
Mirror Images of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (1.22.2010)
Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 2: The Transmission of Sin (Original Sin) (J.R. Cuevas) (1.24.10)
Christian Ministers (J.R. Cuevas) (1.29.10)
Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 3: The Impact of Sin (Total Depravity) (J.R. Cuevas) (1.31.10)
Godly Grief and True Repentance (Roger Alcaraz) (2.5.10)
Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 4: The Unforgivable Sin (Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit) (J.R. Cuevas) (2.7.10)
Christ is Supreme, Christ is Sufficient (J.R. Cuevas) (2.12.10)
Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin, Part 5: The Reason for Sin and Evil (Theodicy) (J.R. Cuevas) (2.14.10)
Is Life Meaningless? (J.R. Cuevas) (2.19.10)
Christology: The Doctrine of Christ, Part 1: The Deity of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (2.21.10)
The Vanity of Life Without God (J.R. Cuevas) (2.26.10)

Christology: The Doctrine of Christ, Part 2: The Humanity of Christ (J.R. Cuevas) (2.28.10)

God is Opposed to the Proud, but Gives Grace to the Humble (John Yang) (3.5.10)

Memorizing the Gospel in Scripture

Hey guys! I just wanted to thank you all for being patient with my not-so-eloquent teaching skills over the past few weeks. It’s been a great blessing and privilege to be able to impart to you the Gospel, in the steps of Paul (Romans 1:15). I hope and pray you’re all learning and applying what you’ve been sitting through, so that you may be an impact for Christ at school!

 

This was brought to my attention earlier today, and I forgot to give you guys the last section of verses to commit to memory. The verses (all of them) are below. I hope all of us (youth and staff) will be diligent in keeping the Word close in our heads and hearts, knowing where Scripture speaks of the Gospel at a moment’s notice, but that it would also remind you of the grace God has truly given each and every one of us who have believed in His Son who died for our sins and has subverted God’s wrath. I hope our Triune God is comforting you with these precious truths. I love you all and hope to see you all soon!

 

Gospel Memory Verses

 

I.                   God is holy.

 

A.     He is Creator and Owner of everything.

 

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

Psalm 24:1 – The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

 

B.     He is perfectly holy,

 

Matthew 5:48 – You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

C.     He requires perfect obedience to His law.

 

James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

 

II.                Man is guilty.

 

A.     Everyone has broken God’s law.

 

Romans 3:10, 23 – [A]s it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”…23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

 

B.     The penalty for sin is eternal death.

 

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

C.     Good works or intentions will not save anyone.

 

Titus 3:5 – [H]e saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

 

III.             Christ is the Savior.

 

A.     Jesus came to earth as both God and sinless man.

 

Colossians 2:9 – For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

 

B.     Jesus demonstrated God’s love in dying on the cross to pay sin’s penalty.

 

Romans 5:8 – [B]ut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

C.     Jesus rose from the grave and is alive today.

 

1 Corinthians 15:4 – [T]hat he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

 

IV.              Sinners must repent and believe.

 

A.     Repent of all that dishonors God.

 

Isaiah 55:7 – [L]et the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

 

Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

 

B.     Believe in Christ as Lord and Savior.

 

Romans 10:9 – [B]ecause, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

 

C.     Will you repent and believe in Christ or will you remain under His wrath?

 

Acts 17:30 – The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

 

Posted by Cesar

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hey guys! Just to give you a heads-up, the audio from the past few weeks of teaching have now been added to this site! Just simply go to the audio page, and click on whichever sermon you need to re-listen to. However, from what I’m seeing as a glitch on the site, you can’t go back past the 10th sermon, or to the next page without being put back onto the same page again. Just in case that or other problems might surface, I decided to not only put the audio on that page, but on another site called imeem. Below are the sermons from last year (June-December) as well as everything in this year. If you don’t have an imeem account, you will not be able to listen to any of the sermons. This would be if you’d like to listen to any of last years’ sermons. Also, if you’d like to have your own copy of the audio yourself, leave a comment, or come talk to me and I will be happy to bring you an mp3 CD that will have most, if not all the audio.Thanks guys for being understanding!

2008 LBC Lumos

2009 LBC Lumos

Posted by Cesar

Loving Your Enemies (Luke 6:32-36) 2/13/09

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” -Jesus (Luke 6:32-36)

Pastor JR gave a very important message about one of the hardest things to do: loving your enemies.

In the beginning of JR’s message, Luke 6:32-34 says that if you do good to people who do good to you, what benefit would you get from it. There is no benefit of doing good to someone who does good to you, because sinners do the same thing. Or lending to each other and expecting something or the full amount. Sinners do the same thing. If they don’t get anything, they’ll turn mad and keep bugging the person.

JR also said that Jesus said to lend to people and enemies, and loving them and to expect absolutely nothing in return.  Why? Because if you do this, you will be “sons of the Most High.”

The Jews at that time were under oppression from the Romans. And Zealots were usually harassing them. Thats why at the that time (and this time), that what Jesus said shocked the Jews. Because they couldn’t stand the Romans. They thought very low of them. They downright HATED them. They stole from them, abused them and did other aggressive and brutal deeds to them. But Jesus will reward you if you love people and your enemies.

JR had also told us the differences between desiring and expecting. Desiring is wanting something. It isn’t bad. We all do it every day. But expecting something is bad, because if you lent money to someone, and you are waiting to have them giving something to you. You turn mad when they haven’t given it to you because you end up bugging the person every day or you’re just mad at the person, because your expecting it. JR mentioned about a famous tennis player who was expecting to break the record for grand slams. The only way he could do that is to win the next match to tie it and to win the next match. But he lost. And when he went up on the podium to give his 2nd pace speech, he cried. That man was expecting to win, but he lost and got mad. JR also mentioned that the Bronze medal winners have a better attitude than the silver medal winners, because the Bronze medal winners just wanted a bronze medal. The Silver medal winners were expecting to win, but they didn’t.

Desiring isn’t bad, because you desire all the time. You desire God, desire this, desire that. Expecting is like “Where is it?! Where’s my toy? Where’s my car? Where’s my money?” But you should still watch for your desires.

Pastor JR got deeper into expecting. Jesus said don’t expect, and your reward will be great. What He is saying is that you lend and do good to people and you expect nothing, but expect everything. Because if you love and do good to people, and don’t expect, you expect everything from Christ.

We got deeper into loving and doing good to people, especially to your enemies. JR said to outdo the person in loving and giving so they won’t outdo you. He said to keep on giving and giving so much, and not even expecting a thing from them. Because you will be rewarded. And if you do this to your enemies, they will be shocked at your love to them! If you do this, you will be rewarded. If you be merciful to those unmerciful to you, you will be rewarded.

The Mercy of God – Compassion from the Bowels and Us

Pastor JR’s message this morning in second hour youth group covered an extremely important topic, and that is of the communicable attribute of the mercy of God.

The first image given to set the tone for what this mercy entails came from the word’s very etymology. The Hebrew word “racham” and the Greek word “oiktirmos” both refer to the emotion of pity and compassion that is so strong, it is felt in the bowels, or intestines. (More graphic parallels were made to illustrate the idea of intestinal feeling, most of which shall remain unspoken of on this post for now hehe)

            Back to the point though, both of these words derive the word we now know as mercy, which is most often biblically manifested in the theme of not delivering the punishment that one deserves. This is complemented by grace, which is the generous giving of that which one does not deserve.

            The first question Pastor JR asked us is this, does God have emotion? After a grueling moment of nervousness as analysis paralysis froze most of us youth, he referred us to 2 Samuel 24:14, which affirms mercy as an attribute of God, and worth staking all our hope and trust in, as David does in the passage, even amidst a time of divine judgment for some specific prideful sins committed.

            This was an eye-opener. There tends to be this misconstrued image of Christ that many of us hold, and that is of a sort of Stoic, emotionless man who wandered about and spoke great profound truths in a monotone voice, never cracking any sort of expression that would denote any inward emotion. In reality, while we still hold a reverent view of our Savior, Scripture reveals that God is not a stiff-necked dictator, but rather, it is in His nature to feel a tender compassion towards us.

            This in itself is an astounding mystery. How could the holy, sovereign God of the universe ever bring Himself to choose to have such emotion for such undeserving sinners like you and I? It seems ludicrous, from a human standpoint. But this only further magnifies the incredible grace and love displayed in His mercy.

            His mercies are displayed in countless ways. The most notable of which being the gift of salvation as displayed in the work and person of Christ, who didn’t do the bare minimum, but humbled Himself to the utmost bottom, and became flesh. The God of the Universe subjected Himself to being a helpless infant, having to grow up like every child, having to experience the horrors of puberty, all in dwelling among us, facing every temptation Satan through in His path, and through it all, He did not sin. And despite all this, being the only human ever to walk the face of the earth to not deserve the wrath of the Father, He took upon our sins, that we might be saved. What an astounding display of love. He took the full blast of the just wrath of God against our sins, because He loves us. Such mercy should bring all of us to our knees and invoke a desire to live in joy and humility.

            His mercies are further displayed in the daily provisions we are yet undeserving of. While God could justly strike us down where we stand at any instant, He mercifully bestows the breath of life on a continual basis, giving us the pleasures of His creation (food anyone?). It truly is amazing that He allows us to even take our next breath.

            All have received the latter mercies, and some have received the former. For those who have received the glorious gift of salvation, the question we then need to ask ourselves is this, why are we not passing it on? If the God of the Universe could condescend to my filthy level and save someone as undeserving as me, why do I still claim all these liberties in not showing such love and mercy to those around me? So what if personalities don’t click, social cliques differ, or even if there is enmity. We who were enemies of God were yet recipients of this sovereignly bestowed mercy. It’s not only a question of are we thankful for this, though we should be constantly, but if we truly are, we do we not reflect it in our day to day lives?

Do we choose to feel a deep sense of compassion for even those in our same household? I could ask a thousand questions like these, and the only thing I could really accomplish is pointing out how even in myself, I fall short so many times and by so far. Though saved from the bondage and eternal consequence of sin, I still can do nothing apart from the grace of God and the sovereign work of sanctification. I am yet a work in progress, not yet perfect until the day I enter His heavenly courts. This should cause me to live prayerfully and faithfully in biblical devotion (yes, this means I need to work the QT’s). It’s so easy to walk about in a mindless daze, but that is so dangerous. The vital thing and the only thing that will cause change is the effect of the love of Christ. Being our church theme of the year, I think it’s an incredibly appropriate and important thing to consider, on a constant basis. The love of Christ must dwell in us for change to take place. Therefore, let us dwell in Him, praying without ceasing, and hiding His Word in our hearts, that we may bring glory to His name, enjoy Him fully, and display this love for the world to see, not that they may look to us, but to the light we seek to reflect.

A Challenge For Us All

As a youth group, I really hope our goal is to grow more in Christ, and not simply to make friends. Our identity is to be found in Christ, and not in the name, “Lumos.” Whether student or staff, who are you living for today? Who did you live for yesterday? Would it be a lie to say that you gave Christ your utmost to make Him known yesterday? Are you daily being humbled by the cross? Please give some time to take in what Pastor John Piper says in the video below:


Posted by Cesar

Body Worship

Here is the youth group body worship done 10/26/08 to Chris Tomlin’s new song “Praise the Father Praise the Son”; featuring the vocal talents of J^3 🙂