Jim Osman (Kootenal Church)

Will there be pets in heaven? Will people recognize each other? A recent Q&A with fifth and sixth graders raised these very questions, and Pastor Jim Osman uses them as the doorway into one of Scripture's richest promises: the new heavens and the new earth. Continuing the exposition of 2 Peter 3:13, Osman traces this promise back to its source in Isaiah 65 and 66, then unpacks a question every believer eventually asks. What is the relationship between this present creation and the one to come? Will God erase this world entirely, or will He renew it? Using the analogy of Noah's flood, the caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly, and the connection Paul draws between our bodily resurrection and creation's own longing in Romans 8, Osman shows that the new earth will be this earth, resurrected, redeemed, and freed from every trace of sin. Every good gift we treasure now will remain, purified of sin's corruption, while a serious gospel appeal is offered for anyone who does not yet possess the righteousness required to enter that place. This episode gives listeners a clear, biblically grounded picture of their eternal home and why that hope should shape how they live today. ★ Support this podcast ★ (https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/)

🌎 Struggling to understand God's sovereignty? Get Jim's new book God Doesn't Try (with Dave Rich, Foreword by Costi W. Hinn) and discover how God accomplishes His will perfectly in salvation, the church, and the end times. 👉 Order now: https://jimosman.com --- By Jim Osman, Pastor | June 28, 2026 | Worship Service Description: God has promised us a New Creation - a New Heaven and a New Earth. A look at our final home and its relationship to this creation. An exposition of 2 Peter 3:13. Scripture: But according to His promise we are looking for NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH, in which righteousness dwells. - 2 Peter 3:13 LSB https://word.ofgod.link/lsb/2Peter3:13?partner=kootenaichurch Kootenai Community Church Channel Links: https://linktr.ee/kootenaichurch Read your bible every day - No Bible? Check out these free resources: https://www.blueletterbible.org/ https://word.ofgod.link/nasb/John1:1-51?partner=kootenaichurch Daily Bible Reading App - Multi Version, Offline http://youversion.com Solid Biblical Teaching: Justin Peters Ministry: https://justinpeters.org/ Grace to You Sermons: https://www.gty.org/library/resources/sermons-library The Way of the Master: https://biblicalevangelism.com The online School of Biblical Evangelism will teach you how to share your faith simply, effectively, and biblically…the way Jesus did.

By Dave Rich, Teacher | June 28, 2026 | Adult Sunday School Lesson Files: https://mykcc.link/ce33 Description: If the second commandment forbids images of God, how should we think about the Bible's own picture-language for Him—and where does the line fall in everyday life and even in fiction? In this lesson we move from principle to practice, working through the applications of the second commandment. We begin with the imagery God uses of Himself. Scripture calls Him a Lion (Revelation 5:5), likens fading man to a moth before Him (Psalm 39:6-11), declares that "God is Light" (1 John 1:5), and speaks of His ear (Psalm 10:17) and His hand (Numbers 11:23). Such figures reveal God truly without reducing Him to a form—because to capture Yahweh in a crafted image is to attempt to make the Incomprehensible comprehensible, and so to grasp at controlling the God who in fact controls us. We see the danger of getting this wrong in 1 Samuel 4, where Israel treated the ark as a good-luck charm. From there we turn to humanity as the image of God: man before the Fall (Genesis 1:26-27), the image marred yet enduring after the Fall (Genesis 9:6; James 3:8-9), renewed in the Christian (Colossians 3:9-10; Romans 8:29), and supremely displayed in Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Colossians 1:9-20). We then name some modern violations of the commandment—every place fallen understanding becomes "the workshop where images of God are crafted according to our own imagination": 1. Mormonism's exalted-man god ("As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be") 2. Pantheism and nature-worship that blur the Creator into the creation 3. The Word of Faith movement, which reshapes God into a means to our ends 4. Icons, relics, and other idols of devotion Finally we test these principles in fiction, contrasting The Chronicles of Narnia with The Shack. Drawing on Lewis's own explanation of Aslan—a supposal, not a representation—we ask why Narnia's Christ-like Lion is fundamentally different from The Shack's literal portrayal of God the Father. The counsel: enter Narnia, but stay out of The Shack. Next time: The Third Commandment. ★ Support this ministry ★ https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/

The coming destruction of the present creation is not just a doctrine to believe—it's a call to live differently. In this expository sermon from 2 Peter 3:11–12, Pastor Jim Osman draws out the practical weight of Peter's eschatological teaching and presses it into the conscience of every believer. Peter's concluding exhortations are clear: those who genuinely believe Christ will return are marked by it. First, they are a holy people—set apart in conduct and godliness, fitted for a new creation in which only righteousness dwells. Osman unpacks what that means practically, showing that holiness is not merely a positional reality but a moral pursuit, one that grace both demands and provides. Second, they are a hastening people—those who long for and actively work toward the coming of the day of God. Osman addresses the apparent tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility head-on. The day is fixed on God's calendar; yet Scripture calls believers to hasten it through holy living, faithful gospel proclamation, and earnest prayer. These are not contradictions—they are the two sides of the same sovereign purpose. If Christ is returning, and Peter insists He is, the only question left is: what kind of people ought we to be? ★ Support this podcast ★ (https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/)

✝️ Struggling to understand God's sovereignty? Get Jim's new book God Doesn't Try (with Dave Rich, Foreword by Costi W. Hinn) and discover how God accomplishes His will perfectly in salvation, the church, and the end times. 👉 Order now: https://jimosman.com --- By Jim Osman, Pastor | June 21, 2026 | Worship Service Description: If we are looking for the Lord’s return, we will be marked by three things. We should be a holy people (v. 11), a hastening people (v. 12), and a heavenly people (v 13). In this sermon, we examine the first two. An exposition of 2 Peter 3:11-12. Scripture: Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed, and the elements will melt with intense heat! - 2 Peter 3:11-12 LSB https://word.ofgod.link/lsb/2Peter3:11-12?partner=kootenaichurch Kootenai Community Church Channel Links: https://linktr.ee/kootenaichurch Read your bible every day - No Bible? Check out these free resources: https://www.blueletterbible.org/ https://word.ofgod.link/nasb/John1:1-51?partner=kootenaichurch Daily Bible Reading App - Multi Version, Offline http://youversion.com Solid Biblical Teaching: Justin Peters Ministry: https://justinpeters.org/ Grace to You Sermons: https://www.gty.org/library/resources/sermons-library The Way of the Master: https://biblicalevangelism.com The online School of Biblical Evangelism will teach you how to share your faith simply, effectively, and biblically…the way Jesus did.

By Dave Rich, Teacher | June 21, 2026 | Adult Sunday School Lesson Files: https://mykcc.link/ce32 Description: Can we make images of Jesus? In this lesson we continue our study of the second commandment by examining one of its most debated applications: pictures and depictions of Christ. We begin with a fourth ethical principle drawn from the commandment—that its prohibitions apply not only to images of wood, stone, and paint, but to the mental images we construct of God. Drawing on Calvin, J.I. Packer, and Psalm 50, we consider how easily fallen minds "scale God down" and fashion him after our own understanding. From there we turn to images of Jesus and work carefully through six common arguments against them: 1. Jesus is God, and the second commandment prohibits images of God 2. We don't know what Jesus looked like, so any image is false 3. Depictions can only show His humanity, tacitly denying His deity 4. We are prone to worship such images 5. Instructional images deny the sufficiency of Scripture 6. Images diminish our eschatological hope of seeing Him After weighing each argument, we ask what we can actually conclude—that we may not worship images of Jesus (or anything else), that images for other purposes are not clearly prohibited, and that caution is warranted to avoid worship, contradicting Scripture, and diminishing our joyful expectation of seeing Christ face to face. Next time: Other applications of the second commandment—biblical symbols, Aslan, The Chosen, and modern-day idolatry. ★ Support this ministry ★ https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/

Two thousand years feels like a long time to wait. Jim Osman says that's exactly the point. Continuing through 2 Peter 3, Osman tackles the mockers' challenge in verse 4: where is the promise of His coming? Peter's answer comes in two parts, and this sermon focuses on the second: God's patience. Osman walks through what that patience actually means, tracing it back through Exodus, Isaiah, and the Psalms to show that the Old Testament's "slow to anger" God and the New Testament's patient Father are the same God, not two different ones. He works carefully through the Greek behind "slow" in verse 9, distinguishing tardiness from sovereign timing, and uses Habakkuk's own wrestling with delay as a parallel. Then comes the heart of the message: who exactly is God being patient toward? Osman pushes back against a popular reading of "not willing for any to perish," arguing from context that Peter is addressing God's own people, the elect not yet gathered in, not the whole world indiscriminately. The sermon closes with four practical encouragements, including a direct word to anyone listening who has yet to repent. This episode offers a clear, doctrinally grounded answer to anyone wondering why God seems to be taking so long. ★ Support this podcast ★ (https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/)

Trouble has a strange way of feeling like a curse. Phil Johnson makes the case from James 1:2–4 that for the Christian, it's actually the opposite. Working through one of the earliest letters in the New Testament, Johnson identifies the James who wrote it: not the apostle, but the Lord's half-brother who became the leading elder in the Jerusalem church. From there, he turns to the text itself, "consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials," and unpacks why that command isn't naive but deeply theological. Johnson works through the Greek word behind both "trials" and "temptations," distinguishes between testing from God and enticement from the devil, and draws on the suffering of Job and Peter's failure and restoration to show that affliction is never random. It's purposeful, sovereignly governed, and aimed at one outcome: maturity that lacks nothing. Three convictions anchor the message: trouble is a blessing, not a curse; tribulation tests us rather than punishes us; and trials perfect us rather than defeat us. For anyone wrestling w ★ Support this podcast ★ (https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/)

🙋 Struggling to understand God's sovereignty? Get Jim's new book God Doesn't Try (with Dave Rich, Foreword by Costi W. Hinn) and discover how God accomplishes His will perfectly in salvation, the church, and the end times. 👉 Order now: https://jimosman.com --- By Jim Osman, Pastor | June 14, 2026 | Worship Service Description: The delay in the coming of the Day of the Lord should not disturb us or cause us to doubt the certainty of its coming. Peter answered the denial of the mockers by reminding his readers of two things: God’s perspective on time and Gods patience toward us. In this sermon we look at God's patience in His promises and toward His people. An exposition of 2 Peter 3:9. Scripture: The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. - 2 Peter 3:9 LSB https://word.ofgod.link/lsb/2Peter3:9?partner=kootenaichurch Kootenai Community Church Channel Links: https://linktr.ee/kootenaichurch Read your bible every day - No Bible? Check out these free resources: https://www.blueletterbible.org/ https://word.ofgod.link/nasb/John1:1-51?partner=kootenaichurch Daily Bible Reading App - Multi Version, Offline http://youversion.com Solid Biblical Teaching: Justin Peters Ministry: https://justinpeters.org/ Grace to You Sermons: https://www.gty.org/library/resources/sermons-library The Way of the Master: https://biblicalevangelism.com The online School of Biblical Evangelism will teach you how to share your faith simply, effectively, and biblically…the way Jesus did.

By Dave Rich, Teacher | June 14, 2026 | Adult Sunday School Lesson Files: https://mykcc.link/ce31 Description: If the first commandment settles WHO we worship, the second settles HOW. In Lesson 31 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich takes up the second commandment: "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God..." (Exodus 21:4-6). Dave begins by drawing the line that most readers miss: the second commandment is not a repeat of the first. The first forbids worshiping false gods; the second forbids worshiping the true God in the wrong way—through images. A surface reading of verse 4 sounds like a ban on making any image of anything at all, but that cannot be the meaning. In the very same context God commands Israel to fashion a lampstand with cups shaped like almond blossoms (Exodus 25:31-34). What God condemns is not the existence of an image but its misuse—making it in order to bow down to it and serve it. From there Dave asks what, exactly, the calf idols were. The golden calf of Exodus 32 and Jeroboam's calves in 1 Kings 12 were not meant to be rival gods—they were meant to represent Yahweh, "who brought you up from the land of Egypt." And that is precisely the problem: even an image intended to represent the true God is forbidden, because, as Deuteronomy 4 explains, at Horeb Israel saw no form—they heard only a voice. To reduce the living God to a manufactured form is to fashion Him according to our own understanding. Dave distills the teaching into three ethical principles: (1) images of created things are permitted, even as aids to worship, so long as they are not worshipped; (2) images of created things are never to be worshipped—whether the ultimate object of devotion is a false god or the true one; and (3) images intended to represent God the Father are prohibited outright. He then unfolds the commandment's motive clauses. God's jealousy (Exodus 20:5; 34:12-17)—His very name is "Jealous"—is the rightful jealousy of a husband for an exclusive love. God's wrath "to the third and fourth generations" is widely misread, so Rich pairs it with Ezekiel 18: God does not punish children for their parents' sins. Rather, idolatrous parents create an atmosphere that breeds idolatry in their children, who then "hate Me" and die for their own sin (Ezekiel 18:20). And against all of it stands God's grace: lovingkindness shown "to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:6). Finally, Dave presses the commandment where it cuts closest to home: are mental images of God also forbidden? Drawing on Calvin—who called the human mind a perpetual workshop forging idols—along with Douma and Packer, he argues that the second commandment reaches past wood and stone to the images we build in our heads. Psalm 50 delivers the indictment: "You thought that I was just like you." Every sentence that begins "My god would never..." or "I like to think of God as..." risks the same sin the craftsmen committed: scaling God down to our own size. An imagined God, Packer warns, will always be imaginary and unreal. A clarifying, convicting lesson for anyone who has ever assumed the second commandment was only about statues—and discovered it reaches all the way to the heart. Next time: humanity made in the image of God, images of Jesus, relics, The Shack, and The Chosen. ★ Support this ministry ★ https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/

By Phil Johnson, Pastor | June 6, 2026 | Worship Service Phil is the Executive Director of Grace to You. https://x.com/GraceLifePulpit

By Phil Johnson, Pastor | June 6, 2026 | Sunday School Phil is the Executive Director of Grace to You. https://x.com/GraceLifePulpit

The mockers had a question: Where is the promise of His coming? Time had passed. Apostles had died. Nothing had changed. Pastor Jim Osman addresses that question head-on as he works through 2 Peter 3:8 — and the answer is as pointed today as it was in the first century. God does not experience time as we do. He is not encumbered by it, constrained by it, or running out of it. He meets no deadlines, feels no urgency, and is exhausted by no length of years. A literal thousand years is to Him what a single day is to us — not because time is vague or undefined, but because He is eternal and we are not. The delay in Christ's return is no evidence of a failed promise. It is simply a reflection of the unbridgeable difference between the eternal God and creatures made of dust. Drawing from Psalm 90 and Peter's deliberate use of its language, Pastor Osman traces what God's relationship to time actually means for the church — and what it does not mean. He corrects three common misuses of this verse: as an argument for long creation days in Genesis 1, as a framework for end-times chronology, and as a basis for treating the thousand years of Revelation 20 as figurative. The point stands: time has no bearing on the fulfillment of God's Word. His return remains imminent. The only question is whether we are found watching. ★ Support this podcast ★ (https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/)

🤷🏼‍♂️ Struggling to understand God's sovereignty? Get Jim's new book God Doesn't Try (with Dave Rich, Foreword by Costi W. Hinn) and discover how God accomplishes His will perfectly in salvation, the church, and the end times. 👉 Order now: https://jimosman.com --- By Jim Osman, Pastor | May 10, 2026 | Worship Service Description: The Day of the Lord will eventually bring the complete dissolution of all creation in a fiery conflagration of judgment. Peter reminds us that the return of Christ in judgment is certain, and unexpected. The judgment by fire will be thorough. An exposition of 2 Peter 3:7 & 10. Scripture: But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out. - 2 Peter 3:7-10 LSB https://word.ofgod.link/lsb/2Peter3:7-10?partner=kootenaichurch Kootenai Community Church Channel Links: https://linktr.ee/kootenaichurch Read your bible every day - No Bible? Check out these free resources: https://www.blueletterbible.org/ https://word.ofgod.link/nasb/John1:1-51?partner=kootenaichurch Daily Bible Reading App - Multi Version, Offline http://youversion.com Solid Biblical Teaching: Justin Peters Ministry: https://justinpeters.org/ Grace to You Sermons: https://www.gty.org/library/resources/sermons-library The Way of the Master: https://biblicalevangelism.com The online School of Biblical Evangelism will teach you how to share your faith simply, effectively, and biblically…the way Jesus did.

By Dave Rich, Teacher | May 31, 2026 | Adult Sunday School Lesson Files: https://mykcc.link/ce30 Description: The Ten Commandments are where most people assume Christian ethics begins—but what does the very first commandment actually require? In Lesson 30 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich opens the Decalogue itself, beginning with the prologue and the first commandment: "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt... You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:1–3). Rich starts with a question most Christians never think to ask: how should the Ten Commandments even be numbered? The Jewish, Roman Catholic/Lutheran, and traditional Protestant traditions divide them differently. Rich explains why he follows the traditional Protestant numbering—the prologue is not itself a command, and the object of coveting is ordered differently in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. From there he makes a crucial observation about the prologue: grace comes first. Before God issues a single command, He reminds Israel that He has already delivered them from Egypt. Deliverance precedes obedience; grace precedes and motivates works—the same pattern that runs straight through the new covenant. The law is not the ground of the relationship but the loving self-communication of the God who has already redeemed His people. Rich then defines what the commandment requires and forbids, drawing on Luther's Small Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism, and carefully distinguishes biblical monotheism from henotheism and monolatry. He closes with two points to ponder. First, the first commandment contains all the rest—because all sin is, at its root, disloyalty to God, the act of putting something else before Him. Second, you have idols to reject. The old names—Baal, Zeus, Thor—have faded, but the powers behind them remain. Scripture itself calls strength, money, the stomach, and covetousness idols. As Calvin put it, the human heart is a perpetual forge of idols. A foundational lesson for anyone who wants to understand why the Ten Commandments still bind the believer today—and why the first one matters most. ★ Support this ministry ★ https://kootenaichurch.org/product/online-giving/