Christ Centered Cast: Recent Episodes

C3 Ministries

Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ Centered Ministries.

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Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

Pastor Sam started the message by reviewing each of the previous messages in this series. We started with Roll for Initiative - How God is our DM, the second message Level Up! - How we can grow stronger through salvation. Third, The BBEG - Who satan is from scripture. Fourth, Ready for Battle! - How we can be prepared for spiritual battle. Fifth, Don't Split the Party - How we should get along with one another. And sixth, New in Town - How we need to be salt and light. And now that you are caught up you are ready for the ADVENTURE!

It’s a running joke that most table-top role-playing games begin with the group starting their adventure in a place that sells food and beverages. It is at this location that the party finds out who they are going to meet, and/or what they are going to do for the adventure. Their quest-giver may have them go rescue a cat from a tree, find some kind of special object, or even slay a dragon. In real life, we too, have a quest-giver. His name is Jesus. He has a quest for us to go on that is life-changing for us, and for those that we meet along the way.

3 things we must do while questing for Jesus. (Acts 1:6-11)

We’ve all had experiences where we went to something for the first time and hoped to be well received by others. Wherever that was we wanted to matter and make a impact where we went.

Background: After sharing the “Beattitudes” during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it a point to tell the Christians who are listening that they need to be like salt and light in the world around them. He wants them to understand that this is the way that they can make a difference where they live.

Big Idea: We make the biggest impact with others by being salt and light. (Matthew 5:13-16; Luke 14:34; Mark 4:21)

Just as splitting the party can be hazardous to one’s health as well as impede your goals or objectives, the same can be said in the Christian life. Our enemy Satan LOVES when Christians struggle to get along and try to go it alone. It is when we are most vulnerable to spiritual attack. Getting along with others has always been difficult, even since the days of the early church, but it has also always been worth it. Because good relationships are so vital to the Christian life, Paul addresses them in Romans when he shares some of the identifying qualities of what it means to be a true Christian.

Background: Penned by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome, it was written with the intent of unifying Jewish and Non-Jewish Christians as one body, through sound biblical theology and practical Christian living.

Big Idea: Three “go-to’s” for getting along with others. (Romans 12:9-21)

It can be very easy to go through life, and many people do, feeling like no one recognizes nor appreciates who you are nor what you do. This can be especially true at times for mothers, especially those that are engaged and involved in growing a family. Cooking, cleaning, driving, counseling, budgeting, “nursing” etc are all things done by moms that are taken for granted. Today in Scripture we will see one such mother who is used, mistreated, and discarded believing that no one values her nor “sees” her.

Background: Earlier in chapter 12 and reaffirmed in the previous chapter, God establishes a covenant with Abraham promising to give him a great nation through him. When things don’t progress on that front according to Abraham’s timetable, Abraham and his wife Sarai decide to take matters in their own hands. (Genesis 16:1-15)

Join us for this special backyard church service and enjoy the ambiance of barking dogs, an ambulance and wind chimes. :D

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

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Last week we learned about the enemy that we face, Satan, and how he is portrayed in Scripture. We also learned some strategies for victory over Satan’s schemes. God wants us to not only know how we can have victory; He also wants us to know what weapons and armor we have for the battle.

Big Idea: 3 Basics that prepare us for spiritual battle. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

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The best stories and games have the strongest villains. While fiction might have some truly terrible villains, we have the most dangerous villain of all, in real life – Satan. Because he is so strong, God wants us to be prepared, to know something about who he is so that we can have victory over him. Today, we will look at 3 symbols of Satan from Scripture that reveal to us what he is like.

Big Idea: 3 symbols of Satan that show us who he is (Ge. 3:1-4; 1 Pe. 5:8-9; Re. 12:7-12)

Our capture card was going out, so we apologize for the audio quality. Next week the audio quality will be back to normal!

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy Date: 4/22/2023

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Part of the fun of Dungeons and Dragons is getting stronger and unlocking new abilities and powers. And just like last time when we looked at 3 ways that God is our Game Master, God is also the one who gives us gives us the opportunity to get stronger spiritually by accepting His Son and receiving His Spirit. When we become saved, we get access to a few different benefits through our relationship with God. Today, we will look at 3 ways that we grow stronger through salvation.

3 ways that we grow stronger through salvation (2 Co. 5:16-17; 2 Ti. 1:6-7; Ro. 12:6-8)

Speaker: Pastor Sam MurphyWebsiteWe apologize for the slight echo in the audio! Next week should be back to the regular beautiful audio you are used to! Dungeons and Dragons as a game has surged back into popularity the past decade. A DM (Dungeon Master or a GM (Game Master) is in charge of creating, running and ruling the game. And just as the GM is responsible for creating, running, and ruling the game, so to is God responsible for doing those things in our life. In the earliest parts of the Bible, we see God do all these things with creation as well as with Adam and Eve. Background: Written by Moses, Genesis is the book of beginnings. We see God beginning his relationship with man and man beginning his relationship with sin. Big Idea: 3 ways that God is GM (DM) of our lives (Genesis 1-3)

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

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“Nobody cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care” - Theodore Roosevelt.

Caring is vital when ministries seek to be conduits of God ‘s truth and love for people. We often hear the world expects believers today to lead with religious agenda, when in fact, God calls his children to lead with love. As it turns out, this cart before the horse mentality is nothing new. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus encountered a man who too focused on law rather than love. He makes the opportunity to help this man understand that the foundation of the spirit life is not merely compliance to code, it is instead caring. In the text, we too will see the importance of choosing to care as “Caring” is our final value to be explored in this series.

Big Idea: 2 choices that make our ministries Caring (Luke 10:25-28)

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

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When you hear the word “committed”, what is your first thought? According to Websters, the first definition might surprise you... When it comes to ministry, we do not do what we do because we feel like we are confined to it, rather we do the ministries at Christ Centered Community because we have made a pledge to Christ and his people. “Committed” is our next value to be considered in this series. In Scripture, the early church was committed to several of the same things in their ministry that we are, and we will see these in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts actually follows the gospel of Luke as a continuation of the story, both written by Luke. While we typically think of Acts being about the Apostles starting of the NT church, and it is, it is far more importantly about Jesus and the Spirit of God establishing the church. This shows a model for the foundation of local churches and ministries to be centered on Christ. [refer to last week’s message]

Big Idea: 3 practices that make our ministries Committed (Acts 2:42-47)

Speaker: Pastor Sam Murphy

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What do you value? If one looks long enough, it is generally not difficult to see what we value. Values are reflected by us personally, as well as, by our families, in our businesses, and even through our ministries and churches. A watching world can quickly see what we value, and it is our goal as a ministry to live out 3 core values; the first of which we will look at this week. In Scripture, the Apostle Peter understood the importance of living in a way that reflects what we value as believers.

Commissioned by Peter, but written by Silvanus, this was a letter that was penned in Rome to Christians throughout Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). These mostly non-Jewish Christians were being persecuted by others in their communities and Peter was attempting to encourage them amid this.

Big Idea: 3 characteristics that make our ministries Christ Centered (1 Peter 2:1-12)

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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At one time or another most all of us have seen, or maybe even given, a heart react to a message, picture, meme, or gif. However, when we dropped that heart, did we really “love” it? Or was that just our knee-jerk response at the time? Now we had other options of course, such as the laugh, cry, angry, smiley face, thumbs up, etc, yet we went with the heart, because we needed to convey something stronger than a simple “like”. In the world of reacts, the heart typically conveys only one thing – love. In the realm of humanity, however, we know that people can “react” with more than just love in their heart. But should they? Even more importantly, should those that claim to be followers of Christ have options for how they react with their heart?

3 kinds of “heart reacts” from 1 John 3 (1 John 3:11-24)

Speaker : Kendra Connor

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Our vision as Christ Centered Community Ministries, and as a church is, “Helping others live Christ-centered lives” Last week we saw as Jesus cast a vision for us in regards to others, as he called his first disciples to be fishers of men. This week we will see Jesus cast a vision for us, his current disciples, and how we should live, or…. BE. We were given the vision to be fishers of men, we know we are to GO and teach, preach and reach but how are we to BE as we GO? The Beatitudes describes for us the vision Jesus had for how we are to live our lives, they describes characteristics that should be evident in those who claim him as Lord. And that is what we will see in Matthew 5 , that the beatitudes represent Jesus’ vision for us, his disciples.

What is Jesus’ vision for how we should “BE” as His disciples? Matthew 5:1-12

Pastor Sam just completed a message series on mission. He shared the mission of the church, and C3 Ministries as a whole, and shared how we can live out that mission. Over the next two weeks, Kendra and I have the opportunity to share about vision. In 2022, the leadership of C3 Ministries developed a vision statement for our ministries. The vision statement is “Helping People Live Christ-centered Lives.”

Vision statements declare current and future objectives of an organization. Vision statements are set in stone, and can change over time. These statements align with an organization’s mission, values, and community. Whatever role you hold within the organization, you would share the same vision.

Luke 5:1-11 shows us 3 things we learn about vision casting from Jesus calling his disciples.

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.”

Jesus wants us to build a Christ centered community through making disciples. The word disciple in the GK means, “learner, pupil”. But Jesus wants us to know that becoming a disciple is not just a conversion experience and learning some bible. It is a process that must be taught and modeled by other believers.

Big Idea: 3 directives given in the commission to make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries. As we began this series this year, we started on the path toward organic discipleship. If we are going to teach others what it means to obey Christ, we first must reach them. Then, once we have reached them, we must proclaim the good news and share our faith with them.

Paul’s mission was also to build a Christ-centered community through the church where Timothy was left to pastor. One of the calls used to do that was preaching the word. We, like Timothy have a call to preach the word. Today, we are going to see what preparations we must make to accomplish this call.

3 Preparations we must make to fulfill our call of preaching (sharing). 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries. One of the practical ways that we are going to be seeking to build a Christ-centered community with intentionality this year, is through a focus on natural discipleship. Natural discipleship is discipleship that while it might be structed in a concentrated way (i.e. a discipleship study or mentoring relationship) it is more experienced through daily living and wholistic spiritual growth. It is for this reason that we are changing up the preach, teach, reach order in our series this year, and instead starting with reaching people first. If we do not reach people, we cannot preach Christ and teach them to obey his teachings.

Background: in 2 Timothy, Paul was going to die soon in prison and wanted to make sure Timothy knew what things were most important in life and ministry. He wanted to Timothy to reach others and shared with him some decisions he must make to expand his reach.

Big Idea: 2 decisions we must make to expand our reach (2 Timothy 1:6-12

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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New year, new you? Join us as Pastor Sam starts our new year by sharing a passage in God's word about Gideon. God wants to use you like He used Gideon in the new year tune in to see how you can be ready!

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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At this point in life, I thought I had seen all there was to see when it comes to Christmas. But there I was, in Menards, looking for Christmas lights when I saw them: Christmas Tree Scent Sticks. Little sticks, that smell like fake pine that you hang on your tree. And smell they do! According to the instructions all six sticks were hung from the tree and the living room began to smell like pine. Chemical pine. The odor lasted for a short while and then was gone. But for a brief time, the living room smelled kind of like Christmas, and it was pleasing. Just like lights and decorations [point to tree], the Bible has something to say about scent as well. Today, we will look at God’s Word and see what it has to say about the importance of aroma.

Background: In these Pauline epistles God gives us a theology of smell. As with the last two messages we’ll begin by looking at Jesus as our model.

God’s word reminds us of the importance of aroma.

(Ephesians 5:1-2; Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 2:14-17)

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy

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A Christmas staple in many households this time of year is the Charlie Brown Christmas. The movie does an amazing job at teaching us not only the true meaning of Christmas, it also showing us the power of genuine love and the right decorations. When we have the right ornamental decorations, our Christmas Trees end up looking beautiful. In the same way, when we adorn our lives biblically, getting beyond the superficial, we look beautiful to God and others as well.

Background: Just like last week, we will approach a theology of adornment by first considering our model and example Jesus Christ. Then, we will explore what that should mean for us as we see that: God’s word reminds us of the importance of adornment. (Is. 53:1-3; 1 Pe. 3:3-4; 1 Ti. 2:8-10; Ti. 2:9-10)

Freeport Maine is practically entirely LL Bean. Pastor Sam was there visiting his family over one Christmas a few years back. He was amazed by it all and had this to say about it. "As I looked up at that tree in Freeport Maine, I was initially struck by its size. Saying it is enormous is an understatement. Though after really examining it, I was more moved by the sheer number of lights on display upon that powerful pine. There were 1000s and 1000s and 1000s casting their luminescence on the night sky! It was a sight to behold. Light has way more important uses than just making our Christmas trees look pretty. Light reveals something, often the way, most notably against a pervasive darkness (which, pervasive darkness is a great way to describe driving around Maine at night)."

Background: It is against the darkness of the world that we see the light of Christ shine most brightly. We will see in the gospels of John first and then Matthew, the significance of light and consider some ways that Christmas tree lights remind us of its importance. God’s word reminds us of the importance of light. (John 8:12, 9:1-5; Matthew 5:14-16)

If I told you that Thanksgiving dinner would be the last time that you ate, your response would probably be something to the effect of “Pastor is crazy. Why does he want me dead? Isn’t there a show about this on Investigate Discovery?!” But once you worked through that, you would probably think something to the effect of, I need to eat to live. In fact, eating is a BIG part of my lifestyle! For some of us, myself included, maybe too big sometimes. If we stopped eating after Thanksgiving dinner was over, we would certainly die. The same thing happens when we stop praising and thanking God after Thanksgiving…we die. Not physically or salvifically mind you, but we die in our spirit. Just like eating, praising and thanking should not be an event, it should be a lifestyle. Today, as we look at the words of Paul to the church at Thessalonica, we will see that he was calling those believers to make it a lifestyle as well. In chapter 5 we will see 3 things we must do to practice praise this Thanksgiving.

3 Things we must do to practice praise this Thanksgiving. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” – John Lennon We could also say, “Thanksgiving is what happens to us while we are busy planning for Christmas”. But what if instead of just letting Thanksgiving happen to us, we decided to prioritize it. Nay, even plan for it! Now I am talking about more than planning and preparing food, or even coordinating the gathering locations, but what if instead we planned for and prepared our hearts for Thanksgiving? How could this potentially change our entire Holiday Season? Today as we look at God’s Word, we are going to see 3 things we can do to prepare our hearts, this Thanksgiving.

3 Things we must do to prepare our hearts this Thanksgiving. (Psalm 9:1-2)

Speaker : Kendra Connor - Fears can lead to anxiety, panic, depression, hopelessness, especially when we forget where God is in our fear. There was one prophet in the Bible that also let his fear completely overtake him and he lost sight of God despite the great and wonderful things God was doing through him. Elijah allowed fear to overwhelm him. God is our lifeline when fear threatens to overwhelm - 1 Kings 19:1-18

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Last week in the first part of this series, we looked at what discipleship is from 2 Timothy as well as some potential outcomes for its practice. Putting something into practice requires knowing more than simply what it is, however, it also necessitates knowing how we get to the implementation step. We must learn how it occurs in the Christian life context. That is exactly what we will look at this week as we answer from Scripture… How should Biblical Discipleship occur? (Luke 14:25-33; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Ephesians 4:11-16)

What is Biblical Discipleship? (2 Timothy 2:1-7, 3:10-17, 4:1-5) If I asked you to define “disciple" what would say? A student, a listener, a follower, a teach? The words “disciple” and “discipleship” get thrown around a lot in church culture, and rightly so. They are seemingly simple words, and easy to define technically speaking (re: definition/synonyms). However, when we really stop and consider what the words mean, they become a lot more intimidating rather quickly. But the Lord does not want us to feel overwhelmed regarding this task called “discipleship.” Instead, He wants us to understand what discipleship is and what it looks like biblically so that we can put it into practice. One such example of discipleship in Scripture, is the relationship between the Apostle Paul and Pastor Timothy. Today we are going to consider this example in asking, what is biblical discipleship? Background: Paul wrote 2 Timothy as he was pastoring in Ephesus from a prison cell. Approaching the end of his life, Paul wanted Timothy to understand the importance of discipling others as he was discipled.

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy - 3 Do’s for Decision Making from the Wisdom Literature. (Psa. 32:8-9; Pro. 3:5-8, 16:1-3)

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In the story the Lady or the Tiger a man imprisoned for loving the princess is faced with a choice, door 1 or door 2. Behind one door is a beautiful woman for him to marry and behind the other is a starving tiger. The young princess knows what is behind each door and signals to the young man which to choose....The story of the Lady, or the Tiger is intentionally left open ended for the reader. Even though we never know the outcome, we are given a glimpse into the mind behind the one who is informing the ultimate decision. Thankfully, though the princess’ motives are conflicted and questionable at best, our God ALWAYS prioritizes what is ultimately for our good and His glory when it comes to decision making. Knowing this about our God reveals that the onus of the responsibility rests with us being willing to listen to the wisdom of the One that has all the information when we make decisions. Knowing this, we are going to learn some things we can do to be ready to make decisions. Background: The Psalm that we will look at was penned by David, and the Proverbs by his son, King Solomon. And yet while these two men were both quite wise, these passages have their source in the wisdom of the breath of God.

As we take a quick break from Pastor Sam's What's in a Name series join us as Lauren shares from Matthew 9. The song “Come Thou Fount” was written by Robert Robinson. He lived a rough childhood, losing his dad at a very young age and needing to begin to work very early on to support him and his widowed mom. His maternal grandfather cut him out of the will and only left a small amount to him because he disapproved of his daughter's choice in a partner. Robert got in with the wrong crowd. One day Robert heard minister George Whitefield preaching and it changed his outlook on life. Robert began to study and eventually became a preacher. In his early 20s he penned the song “Come Thou Fount” to remember God's grace and mercy. Unfortunately Robert fell away from the faith and no longer preached the word as he once did. Robert was in a stagecoach one day later on in life with one other person. This other person was a woman who was singing come thou fount. She asked him his opinion on the song and he said, “Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and, I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel now as I felt then." And she responded with, “the streams of mercy are still flowing.”

The streams of mercy are still flowing, they never stop flowing. We see this in Matthew 9:9-13, which is the passage of scripture where Jesus calls Matthew to follow him.

Big Idea: 2 Lessons we learn about living the gospel from Jesus calling Matthew

God’s people were still traveling in the wilderness and arrived at a place called Rephidim. At Rephidim, they experience another time of wondering where they were going to get water. The people’s short memory leads to them threatening Moses, and God telling Moses to strike a rock. The previous passage ends with his people asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?” In this passage, God is about to answer that.

Big Idea: The Lord wants us to experience victory in life as our Banner. [end] (Exodus 17:8-16)

5 years ago Pastor Sam had a heart attack at just 37 years old. After the heart attack while recovering he was asked who his family medicine doctor was. Problem was he didn't have one, he didn't even realize he needed to have one. He didn't realize he was "sick" enough to need one. Before we began a relationship with God through Christ, we do not realize that we were spiritually sick with our sin either. We did not know that we needed God, the doctor of our soul, to heal us and make us whole. Much like God’s people leaving Egypt in the Exodus, we were just living life with our internal and external struggles unaware of what the actual problem was: our sin sickness and its consequences. In this account in Exodus, God wanted His people to remember their need for Him and to understand that when they came face to face with their sin sickness, that they needed to go God, The Healer.

Health comes from going to The Doctor, and listening to what He says. (Exodus 15:22-27)

Sorry there is no podcast due to audio issues, when the video was downloaded from Facebook there was no audio. Thankfully a copy of the live stream is available on Facebook at https://fb.watch/ft1IFV6_IE/

The message starts at 17:30.

Have you ever heard the classic idiom, “Might makes right?” A simple dictionary definition says it is, “that the people who have power are able to do what they want because no one can stop them”. Historically there have been many that have subscribed to this idiom in their dealings with others, seeking to use their might to elevate themselves while subjugating others. A, survival of the fittest mentality, if you will. And while it has long been debated whether this phrase should be the credo of humanity, when it comes to God, there is absolutely no question. God is mighty; therefore, He is righty. But is there more to His might than that? Most certainly there is. God’s might is revealed several different ways in Scripture which have a direct impact on our lives beyond Him simply “making the rules”. In the Scriptures today, we will see a few of His mighty ways, and what they mean for us.

3 ways in which our Elohim is mighty. (Gen. 1; Psa. 7:8-11; Jer. 31:31-34)

Thanks to a popular Netflix series the Metallica song Master of Puppets has risen the charts once again. Back in 1986 Metallica frontman James Hetfield did an interview on the song. He spoke about how the song is about drug and how innitially people think they are in control and they won't get addicted. They can continue to do drugs recreationally with no consequences.Isn’t that true though? Most people don’t take drugs thinking they will become an addict. They think they can just play around with it without committing their lives to it. In fact, most people have the same unspoken attitude about God too. They want to play around with Him, experience Him recreationally, but do not have any intention of having Him become their Master. Their Adonai.

Thankfully, unlike drugs, which lead to ruined lives and death, when God becomes our Master, we can look forward to nothing but life and freedom in Him. As we will notice in the account of the prophet Isaiah, when we truly experience God personally, we must respond to Him as our Adonai.

Background: After the first 5 chapters in Isaiah of the prophet calling God’s people to repentance or face destruction for their idolatry, we get a snapshot of Isaiah recording his initial call to prophetic ministry. He receives a vision of God and then a commission from God. It is in this vision/commission that we will see:

2 life changing ways that we must respond to Adonai. (Isaiah 6:1-13)

From Voldemort to the Vatican, it is not uncommon for beings of great power to illicit strong visceral responses at the mention of their name. For the former it is out of fear. For the latter, God, it is out of reverence. In fact, in our culture, people used to react when God’s name was taken in vain, but not so much anymore. Now it is not uncommon in many family films to have the name of God or Jesus be used flippantly and thrown away at least once or twice, if not more. But why is the name of God, and more specifically Yahweh or Jehovah so sacred?

God’s people Israel were slaves in Egypt and God has raised up a guy by the name of Moses to free His people and lead them into a promised land. As Moses was at times seemingly insecure, God went to some extra lengths using visual aids like a burning bush to persuade Moses to take up the task. When Moses asks God what to tell the people, when he is trying to free them to convince them that he is legit, God tells Moses to use His personal name. As we consider todays text, we will see why God personal name is sacred.

3 reasons the name YHWH/YAHWEH/JEHOVAH must be sacred for us. (Exodus 3:13-15)

If you have been a Christian long enough, you have probably realized that God in His sovereignty often works apart from the difficulty of our circumstances. In fact, some of the hardest lives have been lived by some of the godliest people. In fact, I believe that God does not want to make our lives better, as much as He wants to make us better. How does He do that? He does that when we seek His favor.

Much like Psalm 147 two weeks ago, 85 was most likely written right after God’s people returned from exile in Babylon. They found themselves frustrated because while they were grateful for God freeing them, they could not understand why life wasn’t better. They recognized that going home was an act of His mercy, but believed that they were still somehow lacking His favor. While favor cannot be earned, Scripture tells us that it is something that can be sought.

Four things we can do to seek the Lord’s favor [happiness]. (Psalm 85)

While widely considered to be the best known and most loved “confidence” Psalm, as well as one oft used at funerals, this memorial marks the first time I’ve ever preached Psalm 23 at a funeral. I am glad for this. I am glad for this because when I think about those we have lost, I think about the confidence we can have. Not a false confidence or arrogance, but a genuine confidence that could only come from one place – God. This Psalm was written by a man who also had great confidence, the shepherd turned warrior turned king, David. Under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, David penned these words as he reflected on how he pictured God’s presence in his life. We are going to consider these 3 pictures as well.

3 Pictures of the Lord from Psalm 23 in Our Lives (Psalm 23)

NASA Reveals the Webb Telescope’s first images of the unseen universe, and it can be easy to see a picture like the ones released this last week of the universe and be in awe of the greatness of God. It can be just as easy if we are not careful though to become discouraged by such greatness when we think of our own smallness by contrast. Yet even though we are so much smaller than God, He does not forget about us. It is this kind of care that makes Him infinitely worthy of our praise. This Psalm was most likely written right after God’s people returned from exile in Babylon. This was a point in history when they would have felt quite small, and not powerful as a people. Perhaps even like we do sometimes. In the midst of this rebuilding, the Psalmist points the eyes of the people to the greatness of the Lord, and calls them to praise Him.

3 Reasons we praise the Lord for His greatness (Psalm 147:1-20)

How many times have we as Christians heard/sung, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, without truly taking the time to consider what friendship with Jesus really means. Just as important, have we ever taken the time to think about his words and understand what Jesus is teaching us about friendship from how he models it?

3 Facts for Forming Friendships from Jesus (John 15:12-17)

Over the course of the past couple of weeks there have been many discussions related to the issue of abortion, how it impacts the rights of women, as well as who should have a say in what we do with our bodies. And while it can be easy to get wrapped up in the debate regarding whether or not the government should be allowed to make those decisions for its populace, we must be careful not to miss the only Person’s opinion that truly matters. The One of who made our bodies in the first place. God.

The issues surrounding how we use our bodies are not new. Paul throughout the first letter to the Corinthians repeatedly addresses the churches exhaustive forays into the flesh, even addressing some of the dominant mentalities of the day that had worked their way into the church. In this passage, he presents some biblical body basics as He wants both his readers and us to understand that God answers the question of body rights.

3 Biblical Body Basics for Believers (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

What is a covenant and why should our covenant with God matter? The prophets of the Old Testament were often called God’s prosecuting attorneys. They brought before the people the case God had against them. And we see throughout most of the prophets those three messages 1. Repent! 2. No? Then God will judge you! 3. Ultimately there is hope in future restoration. And this is very true of the book of Micah. The people during this time were under the Mosaic Covenant found in Deuteronomy. By the time we get to our story in Micah, it was a time of turmoil, war, injustice, and crisis. Micah cried out to the people to repent of their sins, listing off their idolatry, injustice, lies, deceit, and unfaithfulness. In chapter 6 we have Micah giving an indictment of the Lord against Judah. We have our court room scene; Micah is acting as the prosecuting attorney of the Lord against the people who have broken their covenant. Micah 6:1-8 Shows us what a covenant relationship with God should look like, what God wants that covenant relationship to look like. While we may not be under the mosaic covenant we are under the new covenant if we have a relationship with God through Jesus. Through this passage we will see how what while we are no longer under the law, that what God requires of us under that covenant has not changed. And we will answer the question Why our does covenant relationship with God matter?

Passage: Micah 6:1-8

It is nearly impossible to do the first two things we have talked about in preaching and teaching if are failing to accomplish the third – reaching. To build an authentic Christ-centered community, we must be connecting with people. Paul knew this which is why he encouraged Timothy to use his gifts in the ministry to reach others.

In 2 Timothy, Paul was going to die soon in prison and wanted to make sure Timothy knew what things were most important in life and ministry. He wanted to Timothy to reach others and shared with him some decisions he must make to expand his reach.

Big Idea: 2 decisions we must make to expand our reach (2 Timothy 1:6-12)

Jesus wants us to build a Christ centered community through making disciples. The word disciple in the Greek means, “learner, pupil”. But Jesus wants us to know that becoming a disciple is not just a conversion experience and learning some bible. It is a process that must be taught and modeled by other believers.

A short time after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples go to meet him in Galilee as they were instructed by him. It is here on a mountain that he gives them his final instructions before later, ascending into heaven. He gives them 3 directives to obey if they are going to fulfil his mission of making disciples.

Big Idea: 3 directives given in the commission to make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)

We can get so caught up in trying to get everything done, that if we are not careful, we forget things – even the important stuff! As believers, communion is one of the most important things we can participate in. It is so important that it is known as an ordinance. An ordinance is the closest thing that we get to by way of religious ritual. Suffice it to say, this is simply not something that we can afford to forget! Communion reminds us of the important event of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sin, so that we could be saved. It is a memorial to his death, burial, and resurrection. In the Old Testament, God gives the example of another memorial, the Passover, that shows us how to memorialize the important event of His working in our lives.

God freed his people in Exodus through the use of plagues to reveal his power to Pharoah. One of those plagues was the Spirit of God moving through Egypt and killing all the first born of those who did not have their doorframes smeared with the blood of a lamb. Those that did would have the Spirit of God “pass over” them. God did not want His people to forget about His freeing them, so He commanded they memorialize the event by celebrating Passover.

Big Idea: God wants us to remember what He has done for us. Exodus 13:3-10

Paul’s mission was to build a Christ-centered community through the church where Timothy was left to pastor. One of the tasks used to do that was preaching the word. We, like Timothy have a task to preach the word. Tonight, we are going to see what preparations we must make to accomplish this task.

3 Preparations we must make to fulfill our task to preach (share) (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

In life, do you ever feel like you are watching situations happen, just waiting for the point when God is going to step forward and show you where He is in them? Are you at times just eagerly anticipating the big reveal?

Background: In the 19th Psalm, we see David sharing and praising God for the places where he sees God reveal Himself in his life. There are a few in the text that we will see as we discover that…

Big Idea: God wants to reveal Himself to us. Psalm 19:1-14

No matter how you may feel you have fallen short as a mother, grandmother, or aunt, God shows us in Scripture one woman who puts any of your perceived shortcomings to shame. If we dig into the text however, we see that her biggest fault was not actually murdering the royal family as a power grab, it was something that we all make a choice about every day.

After the kingdom was divided following the death of King Solomon, a man named Ahaziah was appointed king in Judah, in the south. As it turns out, Ahaziah was just one more ungodly leader in an ungodly lineage. Interestingly, according to 2nd Chronicles, we’ll see that he received training in living wickedly from Mommie dearest.

Big Idea: Avoiding Athaliah status isn’t about not murdering your family, it’s about modeling godliness.

We have all had times in our lives where we want better from situations or people. Situations, where we were hoping for the best, while even in the back of our minds, figuring things were probably not going to go the way we wished. People, who we wanted to believe were better, but who ultimately could not or would not meet our expectations. It is in those times that we can become disappointed, discouraged, and depressed. We can struggle with thoughts of quitting or having nothing to do with those people anymore. But what would God have us do in those times?

In the first pastoral epistle to Timothy, Paul sees church leaders using ministry to make money for themselves or gain notoriety or power. This undoubtedly hurt Paul from time to time given that he was writing this letter from a prison. He could have just given up on serving the Lord, but instead wrote to Timothy to remind him of what was important and how to overcome becoming disillusioned by those people. We find it all starts with sound doctrine and sound teaching.

Big Idea: How do we keep our high expectations from becoming low emotions? 1 Timothy 6:6-10

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of God? His love? His forgiveness? His patience? His healing power? What about His wrath? God’s wrath is something that isn’t often talked about, but it is important that we do not forget about it. God’s wrath is a divine wrath. It is a precise and controlled anger towards disobedience and the belittling of His holiness. There are three things that happen when we forget about God’s wrath and these can be found in Romans.

The Lord has been mocked and beaten. He has gone before the Council, Pilate, and Herod. The Savior of the world has been crucified, has died, and has been buried in a tomb. It has been a long dark night, but now, now, there is hope in the morning!

Big Idea: The Lord’s empty tomb is the key to a full life. Luke 24:1-12

The disciples cheered for the arrival of royalty on Palm Sunday. They proclaimed that the King is Here!

Jesus sharing the parable of the Ten Minas just prior was not enough for the disciples to realize that while he would be king, his Kingdom would not be yet. As far as the disciples were concerned, their king had arrived and he would be celebrated!

Big Idea: The Lord must be celebrated. Luke 19:28-40

Jesus valued children, and when he had the opportunity, enjoyed being around them. He even went so far as to challenge the disciples regarding their own child-likeness.

As we read in the gospels, the crux of Jesus’ mission was to call God’s people the Jews, and whoever else would listen, to accept his message of the Kingdom of God. People often misunderstood and overcomplicated what the Kingdom and Kingdom living meant. Jesus took the time on route to the cross to simplify things for them, and for us.

Big Idea: The Lord welcomes those who are child-like. Luke 18:15-17

As people, we spend a lot of time searching for things. Sadly, the article and life experience indicate, we also often reach a point when we are looking for something that we just stop searching for it, give up, and go get a replacement. Thank God there is one person who has never stopped searching for what is lost, and that man is Jesus.

In the midst of a myriad of parables that the Lord shared through this portion of Luke we find chapter 15. Chapter 15 contains a unified theological theme that is represented in 3 different stories involving a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost person.

Big Idea: The Lord is still searching for sinners. Luke 15:1-32

It can all be over in an instant. One minute you are sitting in your car at a stop light, the next, you’re sitting in front of God. We often take time for granted, not thinking about the fact that we are not guaranteed another minute here in this life. In fact, Monday marks the 5-year anniversary that things almost ended here for me. Believe me when I say time, my friends, is always short. Those words were on Jesus’ lips when he was here on earth as well. Life is short, repent or perish.

After spending a chapter warning people to notice the signs that the Messiah is here and the end is near, at the end of 12 he tells them make things right with their sins before they have to go before “the judge”. As we start chapter 13 tells how to make things right.

Big Idea: Jesus is still warning people to repent or perish. Luke 13:1-9

Growing up there was an understanding in the school yard that talking about someone’s mom was “fighting words”, as they say. No matter what a person said to or about someone else, the ultimate besmirching was to insult another person’s mother. And most of the time even today, bringing up another’s mother is ground that should be tread upon lightly. Those of you who are married know what I mean. There was a time in Scripture though that someone decided to say something about Jesus’ mother, in front of a crowd no less…

As Jesus continues to the cross, in chapter 11 we find the Christ again drawing a crowd as he casts out demons and chastises the Pharisees. In the midst of his teachings, a woman in the crowd with apparently good intentions calls out to him to offer a kind version of a “Your Mom…”

Big Idea: True favor is found in listening to and obeying the word of God. (Luke 11:27-28)

Some tasks in life require more than one person to accomplish. This is why things like task forces and special interest teams are created. In fact, when the task is particularly large, a team of many is often required to get the job done. And when it comes jobs, there is no greater mission in scope and importance than the mission of sharing the gospel of Christ with the world.

After putting his eyes toward Jerusalem in the last chapter, Jesus selects 72 other people to share in the mission of calling people to the Kingdom on route to the cross.

Big Idea: There is still a mission to be accomplished. Luke 10:1-20

When it comes to the Christian life, we can be tempted to think we have it all figured out. This kind of thinking can unwittingly become a trap for us though. We can be so sure that if we hold onto the past and the things that have always “worked” whether it be facets of church or methods of ministry, if we just do these, we will have this Christian life thing in the bag. Alternatively, we can be so sure that if we just “pursue the new” by listening to the flavor of the month growth expert or buying this new groundbreaking book or trying this new program, that only then, will we have this Christian life thing figured out. We can end up missing the point of what this Christian life thing truly is. We would not be alone in this. The disciples were famous for this kind of thing. We have something they did not though, in that we can learn from their mistakes.

Right smack in the middle of chapter 9 we find the Transfiguration account. Luke places this story in between Christ’s call to take up one’s cross and Jesus’ frustration with the Jews, yet again, missing why he was there.

Big Idea: Jesus still wants to us to look to the cross (Luke 9:28-36)

It can be easy to be terrified by a film like the exorcist. Here we are not dealing with a fictional creature that haunts our nightmares or wears a hockey mask. We are dealing with something real. We can let the reality of demons and the spirit world tempt us to overly fear the evil of these unseen forces and the world around us. At times the people in the movie seemed powerless. Sometimes we feel that way too. But we do not have to. There is one man we know who was never afraid of demons. That of course is Jesus. He was never afraid because he had power over them, just like he did storms, and disease.

When chapter 8 begins we are introduced to a few of the women who ministered with Jesus as well as the concept of parables. Luke then moves into a 3-part thematic narrative asserting Jesus’ dominance over the natural, spiritual, and physical world. Today, we will drill down into the middle part of that narrative by taking a closer look at when Jesus dedemonized a man from Gerasa.

Big Idea: Jesus still has power over everything 8:26-39

If we took the time, we could undoubtedly come up with a list of things that amaze us about Jesus: Who he is as God the Son, all the things he did and does for people, up to and including his sacrifice for us. By contrast, we might struggle if asked to make a list of the things that we think amazes Jesus about us. Would you be surprised to know that there is something about you that can amaze Jesus? As we look today at the account of Jesus healing the Centurion’s Servant, we will find out what that thing is.

After finishing a time of teaching recorded toward the end of chapter 6, Luke begins chapter 7 by placing us in the small village of Capernaum – today commonly referred to as “The Town of Jesus”. It is here he heals someone without ever even meeting them.

Big Idea: Jesus still wants to be amazed by our faith today Luke 7:1-10

There is one person who has never broken a civil law, not even the obscure ones. That man is Jesus. But, while he never broke any civil laws, that did not stop him from violating several religious policies!

Following the account of Jesus calling his first disciples, Luke gives us a thematic section with several accounts of Jesus and the disciples doing things that put them at odds with the religious establishment of the day. The last of these deals with the Sabbath.

Big Idea: Jesus practiced putting people before policy Luke 6:1-11

A group of persons working together. And whether you call it a group, a team, a conglomeration, an outfit, a collection, or a gang, it all speaks to several different things or people working together to accomplish a common task or goal. If anyone was capable of doing everything all by himself it was the God the Son, and yet he chose not to. He chose instead to enlist others to join him.

At some point not long after beginning his public ministry Jesus decided to recruit some people to work with him. He had gained some notoriety by this time and often encountered crowds of people. It was at one such time that he enlisted the aid of some local fisherman. He then used this situation to change their lives forever.

Big Idea: Jesus is still calling people go fishing with him! Luke 5:1-11

Not long after his baptism and divine pronouncement, Jesus was led by God the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil himself.

Big Idea: The devil is still trying to derail God’s children from His best! Luke 4:1-13

It is not uncommon for VIP rap artists and professional wrestlers to have someone come on the scene before them, hyping up the people for their arrival. The same held true for the Son of God. Jesus’ hype-man wore animal hair and ate bugs and wild honey. While his appearance may have left something to be desired, his message was to be the most desired of all.

Fast forward approximately 18 years from his time in the temple as a boy, and we find Jesus on the cusp of his entry into public ministry. This is where he would be baptized. To be baptized he would need a baptizer, and his baptizer brought a message of good news.

Big Idea: Jesus is still looking for people who will proclaim the good news. Luke 3:1-22

A little boy left behind by his family, demonstrating a wisdom well beyond his years. While that does describe the little boy Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone movies, it also describes our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he was just 12 years old too.

After traveling back and forth from Nazareth to Jerusalem annually for over a decade, Mary and Joseph took Jesus for the Feast of the Passover. And promptly forgot him there.

Big Idea: Growth is important for everyone, even Jesus. Luke 2:39-52

What we see in God’s Word is a practice that I do believe has a sound theological basis and that is, the infant dedication. Infant dedication was common practice according to Old Testament demands, it was notably shown with the prophet Samuel, and then again, in Luke chapter 2 with Jesus.

A little over a month after Jesus was circumcised, Mary and Joseph obediently took Jesus to the temple so that Mary could be ceremonially purified, and Jesus could be dedicated to God as their first-born son.

Big Idea: Living for Christ requires dedication. Luke 2:22-40

Pastor Sam concludes his message series in this podcast. He concluded this series during our Christmas Communion & Praise Service.

The message of a preschool Christmas song was simple – Jump for Joy! Why? Because Jesus is born! There was someone in Scripture, however, who jumped for joy BEFORE Jesus was born. And, to make things even more interesting, he jumped for joy before HE WAS EVEN BORN!

After receiving a visit from the angel Gabriel, being told she would give birth to the Christ, and receiving a sign in the pregnancy of her barren cousin Elizabeth, Mary quickly went to go make a family visit…

Big Idea: The birth of Christ should move you to joy! Luke 1:39-56

We can easily make Christmas, let alone the rest of our lives, all about us. With our goals, motivations, choices, and actions we can cast a long shadow over God with our lives, especially when He decides not to shout – because He lets us.

There was a 400-year intertestamental time of silence where ‘the political, religious, and social atmosphere of Israel changed significantly during this period’, and not for the better for God’s people. Everything changed though when He choose to reassert himself and powerfully overshadows the life of a young Jewish virgin.

Big Idea: The power of the Most High wants to overshadow you. Luke 1:26-38

Some people disparagingly state that God is a crutch for those who believe, as if to say they cannot function without the help. But a crutch does a lot for a person. More than just giving them something to offer stability and support, a crutch gives individuals the ability to do things they would never be able to do otherwise. A crutch, though often painfully, motivates a person to do things when it would be far easier to just sit and not accomplish anything at all. God IS a crutch.

After singing at length in gratitude for WHO God has been in his life in verses 1-31 (surviving his enemies and Saul), David transitions to thank God for WHAT He has done in his life. This week as we look at the second part of the text, we will see…

Big Idea: 3 Reasons we should thank God for WHAT HE DOES this Thanksgiving. (2 Samuel 22:32-51)

“Proper” American English goes out the window when we stop to remember that God IS in fact a person WHO should be thanked. We can and should say “Thanks God” when, and only when, we mean it! Sadly though, it can be so easy for us as people to get so caught up in what we’re thankful for, that we forget that the most important aspect of His blessing, is Who we are thankful TO, if we remember Him at all.

David understood the importance of thanking God for who He is and what He did for him toward the end of his life in 2 Samuel 22. He had survived his enemies, most notably former King Saul. His thankfulness was so great that we find this song repeated in Psalm 18. This week as we look at first part of the text, we will see…

3 Reasons we should thank God for WHO HE IS this Thanksgiving. (2 Samuel 22:1-31)

Paul is concluding his letter to the church at Ephesus, deciding to give them a final rousing call to battle at it’s end. He has reminded them of their blessings, their salvation through faith, their oneness in Christ, the mystery of the Gospel, their strength in the Spirit, how-to walk-in unity, new life, and love, and how to live these things out in their families and at work. Now he wants them to know what he has been preparing them for. He wants them to know the reasons for his writing. We see the culmination of his message as we answer the question:

Big Idea: For what reasons should we apply what we’ve learned from Ephesians? (6:10-24)

God will always move His plan forward. He will move it forward in our humility or our haughtiness. We all have a choice to make. Are you going to be a sanctified shrewd dude…or a rude dude?

Josh shared his message, In the Dressing Room, with us.

As a martial artist, when I think of submission, I tend to think of techniques, maneuvers, and moves designed to subdue an opponent and bring them under one’s control. In the context of self-defense or sport, it is something that is forced upon another, with the only alternative recourse being personal harm or injury. Much like other concepts in Scripture though, we find submission is not something we are forced to do, but rather we choose to do. Not from a place of fear, but from a place of love for God and others.

On the heels of telling the church at Ephesus that walking in love, light, and wisdom is characterized by submitting to one another (vs. 21), Paul gives the church some real-life relationship examples of what this socio-spiritual submission should look like. Tonight, as we look at these verses at the end of chapter 5 and beginning 6 we will see practically how we can practice spiritual submission in a way that honors God and others.

Big Idea: How can we honor God through spiritually submitting to others? (5:22-6:9)

Guest speaker, KC, shares from the book of Acts.

Just as the man in the Bee Gees song did his talking by walking, as Christians, so do we. What we say and what we do gives others an impression not only of who we are, but also who Christ is. In a world dominated by self-service and sensuality God calls His church to a different standard. He calls them to walk like Him. To imitate Him.

In the last two sections that we looked at in the text, God through Paul has called the church to walk as one, in one body, and to walk in the newness of life that they have in him. We see that we are called to walk a few more ways, all of which lead us to walking as imitators of God.

How can we walk like God’s people as the church? (5:1-21)

If we desire change and growth in our lives and in our church, we cannot continue thinking and acting in the ways that we always have. To get new results, we must try something new…be something new. Paul wanted the Ephesian church to understand this as well. He called them to recognize their oneness in Christ and to be one body, born again Jew AND Gentile. He wanted them to know, that if they were going to form something new, the church, they had to be something new.

Big Idea: How can we walk in newness as a church? (4:17-32)

There are many times throughout our lives we may find ourselves in a pit of despair. The author of Psalm 69 was in such deep despair he called out to God and prayed through his feelings while he was in his pit of despair. Through the Psalm we can see how we can talk to God and how we should pray when we feel stuck in a pit of despair.

Jew and Gentile were brought together through the blood of Christ into one family, tied together through a common relationship. But that did not guarantee peace. Paul understood this and recognized it was time to take all the theology that he had shared with the Ephesian believers about being one in Christ, and then call them to live it out in practical unity.

Big Idea: How can we walk in unity as a church? (4:1-16)

Just like with the song Open the Eyes of my heart that we saw from Ephesians 1 we can home in on the simplicity of a powerful verse and miss the depths of the text and its context. And while God does do abundantly more than we ask or think in the circumstances around us, He truly wants to do so much more even than that within us.

Background: After encouraging the church at Ephesus to “not lose heart” at the end of vs. 2-13, Paul then goes back to finish the prayer he started in verse 1 of the chapter. After sharing with them their spiritual blessings, praying for the eyes of their hearts to be opened, reminding them of being spiritually alive by grace alone, and revealing the mystery of their body being one in Christ, Paul concludes this heavily theological first half of the epistle by praying for them, again. The prayers he prays in this passage, much like the eye-opening ones from chapter 1, can serve as a model for prayer that we can pray for our church. We look at the text we’re going to see: 2 knee-bowing prayers we can pray for our church. (3:14-21)

As a small child there was a certain amount of relief in finding out that the monsters were not real monsters by episodes end of Scooby Doo. In fact, it was notably almost always some greedy middle-aged white man that was revealed to be the villain. Having that knowledge felt good, explained a lot, and brought some closure. It offered hope that Scooby and the Gangs fears and concerns were not in vain, because the mystery was solved. Similarly, Paul too was facing some threatening circumstances in prison as he wrote this letter. The Ephesian church was discouraged about his imprisonment and what they may face as well for their faith. To encourage these believers, he wanted to share with them a couple of revelations that kept him going when he got he got scared or discouraged in his service to the Lord.

Big Idea: 2 encouraging revelations to keep us going for the gospel.

Just like both peanut butter and jelly taste good when separate, they truly become great when they are brought together by bread. Much in the same way, both Jew and Gentile fully become what God intended when they too are brought together by bread. The Bread of Life – that is, Jesus Christ.

Last week we saw that Paul wanted the Ephesians to remember what their spiritual status was before Christ, to remember the change that took place in them becoming alive in Christ, and to understand how that change only took place, by trusting Christ. This week, in the middle of a situation where peanut butter and jelly each thinks they are better than the other, he reminds them that at one time, they were far from God and alone, without any hope. That is, until Jesus Christ made them One with Him and His people. From Ephesians 2:11-22 we are going to answer the question, What does it mean to be One in Christ?

When preparing this week, I learned of a psychological condition that I had not heard of before. The condition is something called “anhedonia.” When asked to describe the feeling, a person’s typical response might be, “I feel dead inside”. Though many of us may never experience clinical anhedonia, Scripture tells us that we all start out in a state of being “dead inside”. A spiritual anhedonia of sorts. Unlike clinical anhedonia, being spiritually dead inside cannot effectively be treated by therapy and medication. The Apostle Paul tells us that there is only one cure for spiritual death, and that that is salvation.

Earlier in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he greeted them by sharing the many blessings that they received from the Father, Son, and Spirit. He then moved into praying for them to have wisdom and understanding about the power of those blessings. Tonight, we are going to see him remind them about the power of their salvation and what had to happen for them to become saved by God. From this text we are going to answer the question,

What does it mean to be saved?

The Apostle Paul had even more in mind when he wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. He wanted them to know to not only feel God’s presence, he wanted them to grow in the wisdom and understanding of who God is and who they are in Christ.

This was such an important matter to Paul that he prayed for this twice in Ephesians. This is the first of those two prayers. The apostle had just finished sharing with them the source of all the blessings that were receiving and now he moves into calling on God to help them grow in their wisdom and understanding about the power of those blessings. He prays for several things for the church at Ephesus and reveals to us things that we can for as a church as well.

Big Idea: 3 eye-opening prayers we can pray for our church.

Paul shares three strategies with us to win as many as possible in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Tune in as Josh shares what these strategies are!

Think before you act was the important message whimsically delivered by a Pixar short. As people, we can be tempted to re-act to situations, circumstances, and people. Or we can even try to pro-act without considering the Scriptures in our decision making at all. As believers however, God wants us to think, and then act, in a way that reflects Christ and is founded on what the Bible tells us about him and what he has done.

Think before you act was also Paul’s messages to the church at Ephesus. He wrote this letter from prison and wants his audience to see themselves as the body of Christ, think in those terms, and then act accordingly. The first three chapters of Ephesus are jam packed with wonderful theology that teaches us how to think biblically while the last three chapters teaches us how to live that theology out practically. Paul begins this powerful teaching with one, very long, continuous sentence (in the Gk) which should form the foundation of our thinking. He wants us to get ahold of the fact that we are blessed, and to know the sources of those blessings.

Big Idea: The 3 main sources of our blessings as Believers.

Have you ever been to a party, an event, somewhere were you felt like you weren’t wanted? Whether it was just your anxiety telling you people didn’t want you there or there were actually people who did not want you there. Maybe it was at a friend’s house, school, church, in your own home? Our story begins in verse 36 of Luke chapter 7. Jesus is invited to Simon’s house, a pharisee’s house. And there is an uninvited guest that shows up as well, but she has a mission. Do you remember that feeling of being an uninvited guest? How awkward it felt to feel uninvited, to feel unwanted even if it wasn’t true? Let’s dive in and see how our story unfolds. Passage Luke 7:36-50

In verses 39 - 40, we see that all that needed to be done after the birth of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph returned home. Jesus grew in ways all children do. He grew in physical strength. He was filled with wisdom and intellectual abilities and knowledge. He was guided by God. God’s loving presence filled Jesus life from the beginning. We are going to pick up in Luke 2:41 where we will find Jesus and his family traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. We are going to see how Jesus is always exactly where He needed to be. Jesus was exactly where he needed to be. He always is. Mary and Joseph thought Jesus was lost, but he wasn’t. He was in the temple growing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He was preparing for his ministry. Are you feeling lost? Have you drifted away from God? Jesus is exactly where he needs to be at all times. You will always be able to find him. Are you ready to answer the call of ministry in your life as Jesus did?

Wouldn’t it be great if God always answered according to our timetable? If we could press a button and He would appear and would magically tell us what to do, where to go, or come to our rescue when we needed it? We all go through times when we feel like we really need to God to come through. We call out to Him expecting some direction or an answer and instead it seems like all is quiet on the Heaven front. It turns out this puts us in great company with the Psalm writer David. Interestingly, our Savior as well.

Background: Long believed to be a Messianic Psalm, and rightfully so, David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pens this Psalm of great emotional distress. So powerful are these words of frustration, distress, and abandonment that Jesus himself quotes this Psalm while he is being crucified. Just as David most likely did not experience all the things he details in this Psalm, he does give us a glimpse into the kind of emotion we can experience when we wonder if God is there and if He cares.

Big Idea: What should we do when it feels like we have been ghosted by God? How should we respond when it seems like God is not listening?

In the first Guardians of the Galaxy, we find Rocket makes an impact with the things he says. Groot on the other branch, makes an impact through the things he does. Not only is he often the heart of the group, but when he utters the famous line, “We are Groot” and saves the lives of his friends by sacrificing himself, there is no question that he is the strongest of the Guardians as well. Both inside, and out. 3,000 years ago, when Psalm 1 was written, the Psalmist too utilized the image of a tree to communicate something. We will see that he wanted his readers to understand the impact of living a godly life, comparing the godly person to a tree.

Background: As the introductory Psalm, it sets the course for what the entire book of poetry is about. He divides people into one of two categories: those that are striving for godliness, the righteous; and those that are not, the wicked. In Psalm 1 he gives characteristics that describe these two kinds of people and what is determined by which we are.

Big Idea: 3 things that choosing godliness determines for us - Psalm 1

We opened the service with a song called, Fullness of God by Judah. Judah Akers just released his debut album this year. He is a part of the band, Judah & the Lion, as well. Here is what he said about the album, “There came a point this year when a friend’s suicide sent me into a depressed spiral I could not physically pull myself out of. That’s where worship began again for me. A broken human in need of Jesus’ unapologetic, unwavering, constant love, hope, peace, grace for me. And as I pondered all that He’s done for me I came to a place where I had to share it with you. My hope is to scream out Christ’s love to followers and doubters alike, and share the real grace and redemption that’s been found by someone walking in their shoes.” The song Fullness of God pulls its lyrics directly from Ephesians 3:14-21, which is the passage that we will be looking at tonight. In this passage, Paul prays for spiritual strength for himself, and all believers. Background: In verse 1 of Ephesians 3, Paul begins by stating, “For this reason…” as he begins a prayer for power/spiritual strength. He interrupts himself and begins discussing the great mystery of both Jews and Gentiles being united in Christ (Ephesians 2:13-22). Here the word “mystery” means something that was not known before. In the first portion of Ephesians 3, Paul discusses the fact that believers are responsible to proclaim that we are all unified in Christ due to the sacrifice of Jesus and we should proclaim this wherever we go, and that we should not be discouraged due to suffering. Verse 14 picks up with the same phrase of, “For this reason…” as Paul is now continuing the prayer for spiritual strength that he started in verse 1. We are going to look at what spiritual strength entails. We are going to look at three ways to have spiritual strength.

Even though the term “millennial” is often used disparagingly to refer to a certain, specific modern people group, it is also less commonly used to refer to a different people group – God’s people, in the Millennial Kingdom of New Jerusalem.

Last week we saw God pronounce His Judgement on the nations and then on His people. Thankfully though there is a lot of judgement in the book of Zephaniah, he does not stop there. Following God’s judgement, Zephaniah reveals God’s coming Restoration during His Millennial kingdom. We will consider what that Restoration looks like and what it means for all of us.

Big Idea: What does God show us regarding the coming Restoration through Zephaniah? (Zephaniah 3:9-20)

Regardless of whether you believe that the Coronavirus is a form of God’s judgement, or simply a byproduct of one person’s poor culinary choices in eating a bat, God’s judgement is real, and one day it is coming on the Earth.

Last week we saw God’s initial pronouncement of forthcoming Judgement on everyone broadly, but specifically on the nation of Judah. He announced it, described it, and then called them to avoid it. As He continues His message of Judgement through the prophet Zephaniah this week, we will see Him reveal more about the breadth of His Judgement on the nations before turning His eye toward His holy city.

Let us find out what happens next in the text!

Big Idea: What does God show us regarding the coming Judgement through Zephaniah? (Zephaniah 2:4-3:8)

Tupac’s words and actions in life at times echo our own. He went through life doing life his way. He seemed to be keenly aware of God and even acknowledged His presence from time to time. And yet, this seeming awareness of a judgement did nothing to prevent it. He knew God could judge him, but did he realize that God would judge him?

The nation of Judah was living in a time of seeming spiritual prosperity. Under the rule of the godly young King Josiah, there was a national spiritual reform, and yet, God saw beneath the surface of it all. He knew that even though the high places had been torn down, His people were still idolatrous in their hearts. They were aware of Him and even acknowledged His presence from time to time. He was going to bring forth a coming judgement through the nation of Babylon and this message was delivered by the prophet Zephaniah.

Big Idea: What does God show us regarding the coming Judgement through Zephaniah? (Zephaniah 1:1-2:3)

We have become too comfortable in our culture with treating a church building like it is “the holy place”. We try to consolidate of our spirituality to when we are within the walls. We are quick to chastise others for not being there at the predetermined “spiritual” times and then we are just as quick to neglect meeting with those same people the entire rest of the week. Did you know the church in the beginning met daily? Ok, that is a message for another time. Throughout COVID-19 to today people have liked to yank vs. 24-25 of this passage out of context and weaponize them to guilt people into showing up to a building. They choose to completely discard the textual and cultural context when doing so. Let us look at the cultural context and then explore those verses around 24-25.

This letter was written to Jewish believers living outside of Palestine, possibly even Rome. These were spiritually immature and struggling with living out their faith due life-threatening persecution. As a result, many were entirely defecting from the faith (not just “missing church”). The writer of Hebrews wrote to remind them in the first part of the letter about the theology that brought them to Christ and changed their lives. Then in chapter 10 he begins to explain practical ways to live out that teaching. He calls them to remember with confidence how they should live because of the power of Christ’s sacrifice.

Big Idea: 3 confident calls we must answer because of Christ’s sacrifice. [What the passage is actually about.] (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Light is vital for life. Especially when you are trying to find your way to the bathroom in the dark. It gives us the ability to see things that we would otherwise miss and avoid hitting otherwise painful things. It brings clarity to our surroundings and gives us the confidence to walk in security. Light is also the final image for Christ that we will consider from Scripture. We have seen that he is Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the True Vine, the Bread of Life, and now we will see him refer to himself as, the Light of the World.

Referred to as the “light of the world discourse”, Jesus continues his public teaching ministry around the Temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles, a time known for lighting giant lamps to signify God leading His people in the wilderness by smoke and the light of fire. It is here he proclaims himself to be “the light” and in this passage we will see what he means by that as well as 2 ways that he is the light of the world for us.

Big Idea: 2 Ways that Jesus functions as the Light of the World for us. (John 8:12-20, 9:1-7)

This idea of trying to get the benefits of a relationship without committing to it is nothing new. Jesus encountered this selfish mentality in the first century. From the beginning people have sought God for what they believe He has to offer them rather than for who He is. This is especially apparent in tonight’s passage. We have already seen Jesus’ claims to be the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the True Vine. We will see him call himself the Bread of Life and meet a bunch of people who thought, “why buy the Savior, when I can get the bread for free?”

After feeding 5,000 folks and walking on water, he had drawn quite a crowd. They pursued him even when he tried to leave the area. When they finally caught up with him, he confronted them about their self-focused intentions for him. They asked him for bread that they could receive forever. He told them simply, I am that bread, the bread of life. In this passage we will see 2 key ingredients that make Jesus the bread of life for us.

Big Idea: 2 Key Ingredients that make Jesus the bread of life for us. (John 6:34-51)

We are going to hear something about the power of being connected to a vine, but not just any vine, the true Vine. We have seen that Jesus has referred to himself as the Door, the good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and in tonight passage he refers to himself as the true Vine.

In what is referred to by some as “The Farewell Cycle”, here, Jesus is sharing with his disciples’ truths to both encourage and call them for the difficult times ahead. He has just finished sharing with them that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, as well as, that when he goes away, he will send the Holy Spirit. Here, he shares some truth with them about the importance of him being the true.

Big Idea: 3 Truths about our lives, that we hear through the true vine. (John 15:1-11)

Just as we feel lost when we have no idea which way to go locationally, we can experience a similar sense of lostness when we get knocked off course by the circumstances of life too. It is during these disorienting and discouraging times that we need to be shown the way. Thankfully, we have GPS to reorient us when we take a wrong turn or miss our exit, but when we are not sure where to go or what to do in life, we must rely on our JPS instead. Jesus has shown us that he is the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection, and the Life, and tonight we will see that he is also is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The disciples are trying to come to terms with the fact that Jesus has told them that he was going away, going to be dying, that one of them was a traitor, that their defacto leader would deny him three times, that Satan was actively trying to destroy them, and that they would all quit the ministry. This understandably caused them to be disillusioned, discouraged, and disoriented by life. They felt lost and did not know the way to go next. Here in this passage we will see what Jesus says to encourage them as we see 3 ways that the Way tries to show them the way.

Big Idea: 3 Ways the Way encourages us when we are struggling. (John 14:1-14)

The resurrection is a fantastic thing. We celebrate it every year at Easter, also aptly referred to as “Resurrection Sunday”. It is the day that is designated as the day that Jesus conquered death, rising again, and emptying the tomb. Just as was the case with the door, and the good shepherd, Jesus also uses resurrection as a word picture to describe his messianic nature. This week as we look at God’s Word we are going to see Jesus declare that he is, The Resurrection and the Life.

Jesus friend Lazarus had just died in the small village in Bethany and his sisters Mary and Martha are mourning their loss. He had known that he Lazarus was ill, but intentionally waited a couple extra days before making the trek to see his friends. This was all part of his plan. A plan to bring resurrection to Lazarus because HE is the resurrection! In this passage we will see 3 rules that Jesus reveals to us regarding resurrection.

Big Idea: 3 resurrection “rules” Jesus reveals. (John 11:17-27)

Most of us devoid of shepherding experience would probably do a bad job out of the gate in that situation. There was one, however, who claimed to not just be a good shepherd, but the good shepherd though he too lacked practical experience, with the animal anyway. He could make this declaration because he was shepherding a different kind of creature altogether – people. This week as we look at God’s Word, we see the second of Jesus’ comparison images as he calls himself “the good shepherd”. As we saw last week, the setting for this passage is what is known as “the good shepherd discourse” and it is in this passage that we will see the second of the two images tonight. Additionally, as we saw last week Jesus was attempting to call Jewish followers to himself and away from the Pharisees and their corrupt religious system. He did this by way of figure of speech and comparing his shepherding to theirs. We are going to consider from the text 2 “shepherd signs” that demonstrate that Jesus was not only the good shepherd for Jewish people then but is also the good shepherd for us today. Big Idea: 2 signs that Jesus is “the good shepherd” for us. (John 10:11-21)

There was only one safe way into the sheep pen in the middle east as well: through the gate, or door. As we begin our new series titled, “He Is”, we are going to see that Jesus likened himself unto several things in the gospel the John. The first of these comparisons is the gate, or door. We live in a society that tries to tell us that there are many doors we can go through if we even believe in doors at all. Jesus, however, tells us that there is only one door – and it is he!

The setting for this passage is what is known as “the good shepherd discourse” and it is in this passage that we’ll see the first of two images tonight. Here Jesus is using a figure of speech to call followers to himself as a hostile time in his ministry. The Pharisees wanted him dead, and he used this imagery to communicate safety and security with one who is the true shepherd. More about that next week. We are going to consider from the text 3 ways that Jesus was not only the door for Jewish people in the Old Testament but is also the door for us today.

Big Idea: 3 ways in which Jesus is “the door” for us. (John 10:7-10, 22-30)

When we hear the word “confront” we might be tempted to assume an attitude of aggression. To think we are talking about arguing, yelling, and/or fighting. To enjoy hearing our own voice as we assail another for their beliefs to “win”. This has been one of the marks of pride in fact for some stripes of evangelicalism over the years. Dale Carnegie famously shared the quote in How to Win Friends and Influence People, “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” Carnegie understood that the way to win people was not through aggressive argument, but rather, reasoned rhetoric or discussion. This, too, was Paul’s approach.

Background: On his second missionary journey Paul finds himself operating solo as the missionary team has temporary split up for safety and strategy. He is in Athens and becomes angered over the city’s idolatry. Rather than making incendiary posts or comments on Facebook, he decides to engage in discussions with as many people as he can about his one true God. Through his example in Acts 17 we find a few considerations for when engaging in confrontation-evangelism.

Big Idea: 3 considerations for effective confrontation-evangelism. (Acts 17:16-34)

While the overwhelming shift among Christians today seems to be to think that evangelism is the churches job, a history of faith decisions and the example of Jesus and the disciples demonstrates otherwise. In the Scriptures we see that lives were generally not born again through the religious institution, but rather through personal encounters.

Background: In John 4 we find the story of a woman who meets Christ while she is out working. Following her encounter, the first thing that she does is go encounter others. As we look at the text, we will see from this story a few things that we must do if we are going to participate in personal evangelism.

Big Idea: 3 things we must do to personally-evangelize. (John 4:27-42)

While the idea of being a “do-gooder” is sometimes scoffed at and ridiculed in society, we see in Scripture that doing good is often one of the marks of being a disciple. Not only does doing good demonstrate a living out of our faith, additionally, God will at times use our good works to lead others to salvation in Christ. Evangelism through ministry is yet another one of the viable ways that God gives us in Scripture to share the gospel with others. Ministry evangelism can even open doors and hearts that proclamation or event evangelism may not.

Background: In Acts chapter 9 we find as perfect an example as one can get of a person practicing ministry-evangelism. As we look at the text, and her life, we will see a few ways that we can cultivate ministry-evangelism with our lives as well.

Big Idea: 3 ways we can practice ministry-evangelism. (Acts 9:36-42)

We saw last week that while we all may not be the next Billy Graham; we all have a call to proclaim the cross. The way in which we accomplish that calling however may vary. Though preaching and teaching may not be the way that God has gifted you, there are other ways that He can accomplish evangelism through you. The next way that we will explore tonight is that we can evangelize through events. Background: Sometimes it seems like God is talking right to us. In Levi’s experience that was certainly the case. He was at work one day collecting taxes when the Messiah walked into his life and called him to follow. A short time later, Levi decided that he needed to throw a party and invite his friends over so that they could meet one another. As we look at Luke 5:27-32, we will see a few event-evangelism best practices that we can learn from Levi’s party. Big Idea: 3 best practices we must remember to effectively do event-evangelism. (Luke 5:27-32)

There was a time in our nation when the word “Evangelist” or “Evangelism” was synonymous with Billy Graham. He held 417 Crusades in 185 countries and introduced millions and millions of people to Jesus Christ through his preaching, teaching, and writing. It could be easy for us to say, well I am not Billy Graham, or, evangelism is not my gift, or that is just not my personality. And yet, God’s expectations for us to evangelize remain the same. In fact, it is great that He has given us so many ways to accomplish the task of evangelism! The first way that we can evangelize is through proclamation. In the 1st letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul begins by greeting this spiritually immature body, addressing their issue with personality cliques, and then calling them to realize that real spiritual power is found in the cross, not personality. Big Idea: 2 C’s we must consider when we practice proclamation-evangelism (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

Last week we took a look at Barnabas and how we can be encouragers like him. But where do we turn when we need encouragement? The Holy Spirit is the best encourager you could ask for! Dive into John 14:15-17 and discover the ways the Holy Spirit can be an encouragement to you.

Encouragement is more than our words. It’s about our actions and taking risks. Listen and learn 3 ways we can be known as encouragers like Barnabas. (Acts 4:32-37)

“Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.”

It is nearly impossible to do the first two things we have talked about in preaching and teaching if are failing to accomplish the third – reaching. To build an authentic Christ-centered community, we must be connecting with people. Paul knew this which is why he encouraged Timothy to use his gifts in the ministry to reach others.

Background: in 2 Timothy, Paul was going to die soon in prison and wanted to make sure Timothy knew what things were most important in life and ministry. He wanted to Timothy to reach others and shared with him some steps to overcoming any hesitation to expand his reach.

Big Idea: 2 Steps to expanding our reach (2 Timothy 1:6-12)

“Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.”

Jesus wants us to build a Christ centered community through making disciples. The word disciple in the GK means, “learner, pupil”. But Jesus wants us to know that becoming a disciple is not just a conversion experience and learning some bible. It is a process that must be taught and modeled by other believers.

Background: A short time after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples go to meet him in Galilee as they were instructed by him. It is here on a mountain that he gives them his final instructions before later, ascending into heaven. He gives them 3 directives to obey if they are going to fulfill his mission of making disciples.

Big Idea: 3 directives given in the commission to make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)

“Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.”

Last year, was…last year. We began it by looking at our mission as a church and why we are here. God sustained us through 2020 and clearly has something for us to do. He has the same mission for us this year that involves building this community. A Christ-centered community.

Background: Paul’s mission was to build a Christ-centered community through the church where Timothy was left to pastor. One of the tasks used to do that was preaching the word. We, like Timothy have a task to preach the word. We are going to see what preparations we must make to accomplish this task.

3 Preparations we must make to fulfill our task to preach (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

When it comes to giving, love is the strongest motivator of all. More than obligation, more than guilt, more than even blood, love moves mountains to make sure the beloved gets the perfect gift. How much more so when God wants to give something! When God gives something, it is sure to be delivered, right on time. Nothing and no one can truly delay it, stop it, or take it away.

We are going to see what some call the “John 3:16” of the book of Romans. Paul wants the Roman Christians to fully understand the implications of His love for not only them, but for all people, godly and ungodly alike. He wants them to know that no matter what they go through, no matter what they face, and no matter how they feel no one can truly delay, stop, or take away the love of God.

Big Idea: 2 reasons that love cannot be taken from us this Christmas (Romans 5:1-11)

To say that there are many people hoping for a vaccine for the Coronavirus would be the understatement of 2020. Even though the first use was authorized last weekend, it will be some time before the positives and negatives associated with this potentially life-changing injection will be revealed. In the meantime, many vulnerable individuals and their loved ones wait, holding on to the promise from the government that one day they may be immunized against this deadly threat. God has too made us promises that we can hope in. Unlike the human government, we can count on the promises of God because He is completely trustworthy.

In Romans 8 Paul begins by telling the Roman Christians what it means to live in the Spirit and be an heir with Christ. Then, he calls their attention to what they can hope in because of their relationship with the Lord and His promises. As we look at the text, we too will see a few things that we can hope in that God has promised that cannot be taken from us.

Big Idea: 3 things we can hope for that cannot be taken this Christmas (Romans 8:18-25)

Learn about “O Holy Night” and then sing along!

Do you have contagious joy? Do you share your joy from knowing Jesus with others?

This year is a Christmas like none in modern memory. If we try to compare it to holidays past it can be easy to become discouraged by what it seems has been taken from us. We can let these things that seemed at one time so important distract us from what Christmas is truly about as well as the things that can never be stolen from us. Scripture tells that no matter what, there are things that abide. Over the next few weeks, we are going to consider 3 things that can never be taken from us this Christmas, beginning with our faith.

Background: After calling the Roman believers to become “living sacrifices” at the beginning of the chapter, the apostle Paul then moves on to challenge them regarding how they are supposed to live that out. He exhorts them to consider the use of the “gifts” that they have received, as well as their “source”. Tonight, we will be looking at one of the greatest gifts we can receive, as well as 3 reasons that gift can never be stolen from us.

Big Idea: 3 reasons our faith cannot be taken this Christmas (Romans 12:3-8)

Have you heard the Christmas song “I Wonder as I Wander”? Listen to Kendra explain the history and theology of the song, then give it a listen!

Precious Babe in the manger. His love on the cross. Victory of the empty tomb. Trust that He is coming again.

Learn the history and theology behind the Christmas song, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” 🎄

Prayer for one another is one of the most important ministries we have as believers.

It has been said that attitude is everything. Whether this is true in everything, it is certainly so regarding our obedience to God. As we finish Nehemiah, we have seen what God is trying to build into our community and into us as people. Even if attitude is not everything, it is the foundation for how we live the Christian life.

Background: On same day that Nehemiah’s community celebrated finishing the wall, they also made it a point to read from the Scriptures. They discovered that they had some problems regarding their attitude toward obeying God. They had several attitude problems that once addressed would lead to the reform found in chapters 8-10. Fast forward in time, this reform would not last and Nehemiah would be faced with these same attitudes during his 2nd term as governor. We see from Nehemiah 13 four attitudes that must be confronted in our lives that can lead to reform in our communities.

Big Idea: 4 attitudes that need to be confronted in our Christian communities (Nehemiah 13)

Each year in our country we have the opportunity nationally, personally, and ecclesiastically to celebrate our thankfulness and gratitude. As believers, this time of year should be even more important to us as we know the God who is worthy of our praise. As the community of Nehemiah’s day grew, they recognized the importance of taking the time to dedicate the wall that was built by the Lord. The completion of this project was cause for celebration as they lifted their instruments and their voices to heaven in praise to the Lord. Having an attitude of praise is vital in our lives, and we will see three reasons why it is so important. Big Idea: 3 reasons why an attitude of praise is important for our lives (Nehemiah 12)

Once we have moved from commitment to community, we can see that that was God’s purpose for us, and His purpose with us, all along. He has several reasons that He wants us in community, and we can see those reflected in the account of the community of Nehemiah’s day.

Background: Last week we looked at moving from commitment to community. As we look back to chapter 7 before hurtling forward to chapter 11, we are remined that God’s goal throughout Nehemiah is to rebuild His people, His community. Community is important to God and we will see three reasons that we are here as a community.

Big Idea: 3 reasons we are here as a community (Nehemiah 11)

Once we have made a commitment to the Lord we will struggle to stay committed to the Lord unless we strive to do so in the context of community. We need others to build us up, support us, and help keep us accountable. When it comes to the Lord, He wants us to be committed to Him through community. To fully commit to the Lord though, we must start from a place of commitment to Him, and then take some deliberate steps toward others.

(Placing chapters 8-10 in context) God’s people had now taken some concrete steps to reestablish their commitment to Him. Last time we saw three steps that took God’s people from confession to commitment. We will see three steps that took them from commitment to community.

Big Idea: 3 steps to move us from commitment to community with the Lord. (Nehemiah 10)

The song Rescue by Lauren Daigle focuses around the idea that we can send an SOS to God, even when we feel like we have nothing left, and He will be there for us. Last week we looked at three ways God leads us. We saw that the Israelites were led in numerous ways with quite a bit of uncertainty. The same can be said for us. Tonight, we are going to look at what we should remember while He is leading us, especially when He leads us to a place of waiting. We are going to look at Psalm 77. Asaph wrote this Psalm. He was a great singer and musician during David and Solomon’s time. The reason behind this Psalm is unknown, but it is clear that Asaph was in distress and calling out to God in a time of uncertainty.

Big Idea: 2 Things to Remember When God Leads Us to a Place of Waiting (Psalm 77)

Have you ever had a GPS take you to the wrong destination? One time we were going to a family wedding and the GPS took us to a large field. During a youth trip, the GPS took us to an abandoned church instead of the actual location. Thankfully in life, God is our navigator and He always has a plan for our lives. In Exodus 13 and 14, we see three ways God leads us.

In Matthew 22 Jesus had just finished sharing a bunch of parables regarding the Kingdom (more about that later). It is after his last parable that two opposing “political” parties decided to team-up and try to trap Jesus by getting him to sling mud one way or the other. It is here that we witness Jesus masterfully handle the politics of his day and we learn a few things about how to handle politics in ours. 3 things we can learn from how Jesus handled politics (Matthew 22:15-22)

Everyone has a different threshold for their capacity for commitment. Some people will never commit fully to anyone or anything. Others, however, do not know the meaning of the word “no” and will commit to every task and person that comes their way. When it comes to the Lord, He wants to be in a fully committed relationship with us. To fully commit to the Lord though, we must start from a place of confession for our failure in this regard, and then take some deliberate steps.

Background: This is where God’s people found themselves as well. After looking in His Word and coming to grips with how far they were from it, they began to try to implement it into the various areas of their lives. Following the Feast of Tabernacles, God’s people came face to face their lack of commitment to Him as evidenced in their unholy unions with others. Upon realizing this, they had to take some steps to from confession to commitment.

It matters little if we build big buildings and fill them with lots of people if what we build is not centered on what matters. If the church is not centered on the Word of God, then it is simply a social club that makes little eternal impact. God wanted His people to be centered on His Word so that they could proclaim his glory to the surrounding nations. He still wants that today.

Background: At this point in the account the man of God Nehemiah is joined by the prophet Ezra to hold what amounts to the world’s first Bible conference. After completing the walls and calling God’s people to come back to Jerusalem, the people gather on the first day of the year of the Jewish religious calendar, to recenter their lives on the Word of God. It is from this chapter that we learn how we as God’s people can recenter our lives on God’s Word.

Big Idea: How can we as God’s people recenter our lives on God’s Word?

There is a time for everything. In the midst of uncertainty, God is certain.

Probably most of us at some point in our lives have heard the saying, “It’s the inside that counts.” This statement can be used to describe things and people that are both attractive and unattractive. Large or small. Strong or weak. The point of the statement is to help the hearer to realize that no matter what the outside looks like, the inside is just as important, if not more so.

Background: Time and again throughout the Bible, God communicates the same. Whether speaking of a building, a body, or THE body, God is more concerned with what makes up the inside than anything else. After completing the construction of the wall, Nehemiah begins working on building up the people. In tonight’s message we are going to see three “exercises” that Nehemiah performed to build up the body of God’s people. These are exercises that we too can put into practice to help grow this body as well.

Big Idea: 3 Bodybuilding exercises so that we can be a body who builds

Nehemiah 7:1-4, 5-7, 61-65, 66-73

It seems like in life that just when things are going right, and we are making progress, that there is someone waiting to try and knock us back. As we saw in the last few weeks that threat is at times from the outside. At other times, the threat comes from within. And still other times the threat is in our face attack against our character, or even our person.

We have seen over the last month that Nehemiah is a man of great character and excellent leadership skill. He has masterfully navigated attacks against his people, by his people against one another, and tonight, we will see from God’s word how Nehemiah handles a threat against himself. As we look at the text, we will discover 4 ways we can address attacks against us, or we could call them 4 strategies for squashing slander.

Big Idea: 4 strategies for squashing slander.

Nehemiah 6:1-19

Facing opposition outside the community is expected. Facing it within the community can often be surprising, and, deflating. One of the most insidious sources of internal opposition in the community is simply, our selfishness.

Background: Nehemiah the man who has cared deeply, demonstrated great faith, and worked hard despite the opposition of his enemies now faces a new threat: The selfishness of his own people, specifically, the nobles. We will see from God’s word how Nehemiah confronted this internal problem and the steps he took resolve it. As we look at the text we will see 3 steps to move from selfishness to selflessness.

Nehemiah 5:1-19

What are three important notes from God’s blueprint for builders? Listen as Josh shares from God’s Word!

Any time we try to accomplish anything of meaning in life while success is not guaranteed, opposition is. There will always be someone or something will come up that will try to delay or destroy the work. Sometimes that person or thing is us even. It is in those times that we have a choice to make. Do we agree and give up, or do we persevere in the face of opposition?

As God’s man for the job Nehemiah has cared deeply, demonstrated great faith, and worked hard to the glory of God. This was all not without opposition. Tonight, we will see from God’s word the opposition that Nehemiah faced as well as how he expertly navigated handled it. We will look at a couple of commitments that we can make when faced with opposition.

Big Idea: 2 commitments we can make when faced with opposition in life.

Nehemiah 4:1-23

“Working hard or hardly working?” What might initially seem an amusing anecdote or a humorous cliché, that phrase should give us pause. When it comes to the various areas of one’s life, whether they be your job, your relationships, your spiritual life, or the Lord are you working hard? Or hardly working? God wants to accomplish things in and through our lives, but He doesn’t want to work with lazy people. Are you ready for God to build to build something in or through you? Are you ready to work at it?

We’ve seen that Nehemiah was a man who cared, as well as a man of great faith. In the third chapter of the book of Nehemiah we see that he is a hard worker too. We see from his example some important ways we too can be hard working builders for God. I invite you to turn to chapter 2:17 in the text tonight as we are going to see 3 important ways that we can be hardworking builders.

Big Idea: 3 important ways we can be hardworking builders

Nehemiah 2:17; 3-32

If accomplishing difficult things for God were easy, we would not need faith. We would just accomplish them. God calls us to be involved in difficult things for Him to exercise our trust in and dependence upon, Him. While the road map for each difficult thing is different, there always one necessary component that is required: our faith.

Not only was Nehemiah a man of character, he was also a man of faith. In the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah we see this faith tested in several ways, and in each way, Nehemiah trust in and dependence upon God is revealed. I invite you to turn there in the text as we are going to see the faith of Nehemiah and ask the question: Why does our faith matter when God wants to build something? Nehemiah 2:1-20

What we really need to do is care. The reputation of God’s church and His people has taken a hit during the Coronavirus. Some of this is understandable. Gathering in large groups has become potentially dangerous. Doing things that unnecessarily offend others and cause others to unrighteously speak ill of us, is not understandable. Several pastor friends of mine have said that the Coronavirus and its fallout has been kind of like God hitting the reset button on the church. That it is almost like we must rebuild it now. I don’t disagree.

The prophet Nehemiah experienced a similar situation as he stared at the broken-down walls of the city of Jerusalem. God moved in the heart of a man to rebuild something that was broken. It was a great task, but it all started simply with a man, who cared a whole awful lot.

Whether we die from COVID or not, we will all invariably die. The Apostle Paul understood this as he faced his own certain death toward the end of the second letter to the pastor Timothy. He also understood that though we have no choice about death, we do have a choice about life.

After giving Timothy several solid reasons for continuing to serve the Lord, he gives him his final great reason – that his life would be ending soon. He showed both Timothy and us the importance of one’s choice of approach to life, especially when death leaves us none.

Big Idea: 3 choices we can make regarding how we approach life. 2 Ti. 4:6-8

As much as we may want to return home from a vacation and eat from our own fridges, use our own showers, and sleep in our own beds, there can often be anxiety when we think of all of the responsibilities we are coming back to. We might dread the uncertainties of the emails we may be facing, the stuff left undone in our absence, or just the general surprises that may pop up in everyday life. God’s people were no strangers to anxiety from uncertainty either, though this was not God’s will for them, and it is not His will for us either. He wants us to rest no matter where we go or where we are.

In Psalm 131 David encourages God’s people through one of the Songs of Ascents (songs sung by His people as they climbed the high hill to Jerusalem as well as to the temple for worship). This Psalm which appears to be a prayer by David reveals for us some important steps to finding rest using his personal journey in this area as an example.

Because people tend to be inherently self-focused when we are asked to share things for which we praise God, we often default to the things that He has done in our lives and neglect who He IS in our lives. We forget that there is so much about God for which we can praise Him and God gives us reminders in His word, especially in the book of Psalms.

In Psalm 145 Psalmist (David) uses an alphabetical acrostic to declare some particularly praise-worthy attributes of God.

Joshua has just assumed leadership of the wandering Israelites from Moses and they were headed for the promised land. God promised Joshua that He would be with him just as He was had been with Moses and God demonstrated this by miraculously drying up the Jordan River in the middle just as He had done with the Dead Sea. God believed that this miraculous event was worth remembering and He wanted His people to teach to future generations about it, therefore He told Joshua to build a stone memorial.

When God wants to memorialize something, he uses stones, not statues. Joshua 4:1-24

We all come to the holiday of Father’s Day with different life experiences in this department. Some of us have/had what might be considered a “good” father. Others of us have/had what might be considered a “bad” father. Still others grew up without a father around at all. Those experiences impact how we all define what a “good” father looks like. While our experiences all may be subjective, God’s Word shows us some objectives characteristics regarding how to define what a “good” father looks like. As we look at the wisdom literature of Psalms and Proverbs, we will see 3 of these characteristics.

Of all the “One Another’s”, nay all the words in Scripture few are as controversial as “Submit”. Our individualistic western culture consistently bucks at the idea of placing ourselves under the will of anyone but ourselves. We perceive it to be a sign of weakness, something utilized in combat sports to represent defeat. God has a different plan for the word, however, a plan that promotes strength not just in the church, but in families, and in the workplace as well. How then do we get from aversion to the word, to putting it into beneficial practice in our lives?

"Love one another" isn't a political stance, it's a command from God. If we cannot love one another, we cannot pray for one another. In James 5 we see how we can powerfully pray for one another, and how to apply it to our lives.

Our lives- gifts, homes- should be used to serve others for God’s purpose and to bring Him glory.

Will you open your home to friends and family, and sometimes strangers, like Christians did in Peter’s day without grumbling? Make the choice tonight to serve others like the believers in Peter’s day did. Make it a priority to make being hospitable a vital virtue in your life.

Are you using your gifts to serve others? If you are, great! If not, think of ways you can use all that God has given you to serve others. What about your Spiritual gifts? Maybe you don’t know what your Spiritual gift is. Or maybe you don’t know how to use it. Reach out to a church leader and ask them to discuss it with you. It brings great joy to servant leaders when it comes to helping people discover their gifts and walk alongside them as they use them.

To fail to use the gifts God has given you is to fail in serving one another.

For much of this series so far there has been a strong emphasis on the things we should “DO” regarding one another. This is important because it is beneficial to highlight the positives, to encourage people, to give hope. In preaching there has been a strong trend over the years to do this and in some cases it has been taken to the extreme, to the point of preachers living in fear that they would make anyone feel bad and potentially drive them away if they came across as negative, or scolding, or made people feel bad. Be that as it may, we cannot willingly ignore that God’s Word has warnings in it. Things that He tells us NOT to do. Things that might cause us to look inward and even feel a little bad about. God’s DO NOT’s are just as valuable as His DO’s for our growth.

As people who claim to be Christians, we should want to live and act like Jesus did. Jesus literally gave up all of His rights for us.

Check your head.

Check your heart.

Check your hands.

This week was National Teacher Appreciation Week and this weekend is Mother's Day. If there is one thing that every student, parent, and teacher has learned through this current Pandemic, it's that there are times we are all called upon to be teachers.

While loving one another is the first and arguably most important “one another” we can practice, it is certainly not the only one. Even when we love others, we can still struggle with getting along with them at times. We will see from God’s Word that we can live in harmony with others if we are willing to put into practice the principles presented there.

How can we live in harmony with one another? Listen to find out how!

Jesus demonstrated his love through the crucifixion, which we saw at Easter. Now, he wants us to demonstrate that love for one another. That was his message, as well as the message of the apostles Peter and John. This message is timeless as well as without context, as it is just as important now, maybe more than ever. In the passages we see three different exhortations or “laws” for how we should love one another during our time of social isolation. The Three Love Laws: Love one another obediently, Love one another deeply, Love one another perfectly

Being isolated has disrupted and changed our lives. How can we make the most of this time of social isolation?

We can prepare for choices and changes.
We can refresh and recharge.
We can listen and yield.

Has Satan been trying to use this time to distract you, to pull you away from God? Are you facing any choices or next big steps in your life? Have you felt led by the Spirit during this time. What you are facing, spend time in prayer seeking God.

Do you take on a lot without allowing yourself time alone with God? Do you try to give and minister to others at the neglect of your relationship with God?

Make this time a time of solitude with God, not a time of isolation.

This was the sixth day of the last week of Jesus’ life and he knew it. As we explore his last week, we can learn some things about how he, and others, handled it. The next thing we learn occurs surrounding the trials of Jesus. This was the day that Jesus underwent 6 corrupt trials before being crucified. The last of which was before Pilate.

After condemning Jesus, Judas is consumed by his guilt and does something about it. Following 5 other trials, the 6th puts Jesus standing before Pilate, who presumes Jesus to be an innocent man. Pilate could have freed Jesus yet condemns him as well.

We see from this passage (Matthew 27:1-26) that Judas acknowledged his sin and chose death instead of going to God, while Pilate avoided his sin and chose to distance himself from it and God. Both condemned Jesus but neither wanted to deal with it – they washed their hands of it. We have a choice to make when we sin too. Will we go to God for the cleansing power of forgiveness that only comes from confession? Or will we wash our hands of it, to our detriment and our death. That is a choice we all must make whenever we do anything that is a sin against God. Wash your hands to prevent the spread of viruses, but don’t wash your hands of your sin. Confess it instead and be forgiven instead.

Happy Easter!

This was the first day of a new week and it changed everything. As we look at this new day, we can learn some things about how people handled the unbelievable resurrection of Jesus Christ. The things we learn occur surrounding Jesus' resurrection from the the tomb, following his crucifixion and time in the grace. This was a day that Jesus appeared to people in his resurrected body, to demonstrate his victory over the grave and death itself.

This was the seventh day of the last week of Jesus’ life and he knew it. As we explore his last week, we can learn some things about the importance of his death and why it was necessary. The next thing we learn occurs surrounding Jesus’ time in the grave, post crucifixion. This was a day that we don’t hear any words from Jesus, but we do look back at his words regarding the coming of this day.

In this chapter, we find Matthew sharing a series of conversations between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. The religious leaders in this passage were trying to get Jesus to do a miracle on demand. While they already witnessed several, they had rejected them, and wanted to see a sign that would make them believe. Jesus tells them the only sign that matters is the one that points back to Jonah.

Big Idea: 2 Lessons from the grave that we learn from the sign of Jonah. (Matthew 12:38-42)

This was the fifth day of the last week of Jesus’ life and he knew it. As we explore his last week, we can learn some things about how he handled it. The next thing we learn occurs surrounding the last supper. This was the busiest day of the week, but Jesus still made it a priority to serve others.

Though Jesus was only a couple of days from death, yet he still made it a priority to wash other people’s feet. He modeled for us what it means to live out being a servant. As those who claim to be washed by Jesus in salvation, do you follow his example as a servant? He is calling us to follow his example with the time we have left and serve others. Will you?

What if you had one week left to live? What would you do with it?

"One Week Left to Live" is a message series on Jesus' last week on earth. We can learn some things about how Jesus handled his last week on earth. This was the fourth day of the last week of Jesus’ life and he knew it. As we explore his last week, we can learn some things about how he handled it. The next thing we learn occurs surrounding the silent day. This is the day where there are no events recorded in the gospels. After Jesus finished a couple of exhausting days in Jerusalem it is believed that he spent this day relaxing with friends and preparing for the Passover.

Jesus understood the importance and value of having friendships. At the very end of his life, before things turned into a total nightmare, he knew he needed them, and they were there for him. Because he was always there for them. If you do have close friendships that you are intentionally working at developing, thank God for them. If you are struggling with doing this, the church is a great place to find people who love you and want to be your friend. Ask God and talk to others, because there very well be others in your life who are looking for a friend to, but are too afraid to ask.

What if you had one week left to live? What would you do with it?

"One Week Left to Live" is a message series on Jesus' last week on earth. We can learn some things about how Jesus handled his last week on earth.

During this message, we take a look at someone other than Jesus. In comic books, this would be considered a tie-in. In video games, this would be considered a side-quest. In TV shows, this would be considered the episode where you focus on someone other than the main protagonist. In the message, we take a look at someone else who has a name that starts with J. Someone who was very involved in the last week of Jesus' life. Someone who is actually seen as the antagonist. That someone is Judas.

What will you choose in life when things are difficult?

When it's hard to be a believer?

When your life could be in danger?

Will you choose devotion over deception?

What if you had one week left to live? What would you do with it?

"One Week Left to Live" is a message series on Jesus' last week on earth. We can learn some things about how Jesus handled his last week on earth. The third thing we learn occurs while Jesus gives his Olivet discourse. Jesus knew that his time on earth was ending. Bearing this in mind, he wanted to prepare his disciples for what was to come. He wanted them to see how glimpsing the future, should motivate them to prepare in the present. While looking at Mark 13:1-37, Pastor Sam shares 7 pro-tips that Jesus gives us to prepare us for the end.

Jesus shows us from these passages that no matter how much time we have left, we should always be prepared for the end. We prepare now by sharing with others about who the Son of Man is, and that he is coming back.

What if you had one week left to live? What would you do with it?

"One Week Left to Live" is a message series on Jesus' last week on earth. We can learn some things about how Jesus handled his last week on earth. The second thing we learn occurs surrounding Jerusalem and the temple on the next day. In this message, Pastor Sam answers the question, "What moved Jesus emotionally on the second day leading up to his earthly death?" In Luke 19:41-48, we see Jesus was moved in two ways.

Jesus shows us from these passages that even when life is short or difficult, we should not allow ourselves to become self-absorbed. We must consider our feelings and ask If we are moved by the right things. We must choose to be moved by those that reject Jesus, praying that their spiritual blindness would be removed. We must also choose to be moved by those exploiting the church for gain or convenience. This should upset us, and we should challenge those who want to take shortcuts with their faith. Ask yourself if the things that moved Jesus, move you. If not, pray that God would break your heart for them.

What if you had one week left to live? What would you do with it?

"One Week Left to Live" is a message series on Jesus' last week on earth. We can learn some things about how Jesus handled his last week on earth. The first thing we learn occurs on Palm Sunday. Jesus knew that he was going to die here. Rather than running from this, he walked toward it and toward the Father as a result.

In John 12:9-19, we see three different areas of obedience:

Jesus understood everything, but followed anyway
The disciples didn't understand everything, but followed anyway
Lazarus understood some things, but followed anyway

This passage teaches us through the obedience of these men that following the Father is costly, but worth it. Are you ready to follow the Father? You might have 7 days left to live. You might have 70. You don’t know. Jesus only had 7. He used those 7 to follow the Father. Choose to use your remaining days to follow the Father too.

When you feel anxious, what do you do? Where do you run to?

In Philippians 4:4-9, Paul gives us three three things to replace our anxiety with.

We might not always have a sunny optimism or positive attitude, but that should not stop us from rejoicing in the Lord always.
We should remember that prayer to God is being present in the midst of anxiety. It’s saying “here I am, God '' to the one who is in the midst of it all with you.
Don’t be whatever about the “whatever’s”. Meditate on them. If it seems overwhelming and there’s too many, pick one or two to focus on.

It is entirely possible to rejoice always, pray in every situation, and think on the “whatever’s” when we feel anxiety creeping in. It’s up to us to put it into practice.

Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.

Paul’s mission was to build a Christ-centered community through the church where Timothy was left to pastor. One of the tasks used to do that was reaching people with his ministry. In 2 Timothy, Paul was going to die soon in prison and wanted to make sure Timothy knew what things were most important.

When it comes to reaching people, many times the biggest obstacle to overcome, is ourselves. We let our fear and our shame make us retreat from opportunities that God wants to give us to reach other people. Make a commitment that you will give God your fear and your shame, and ask Him to show you who He wants you to reach in 2020. Reach.

Our mission is to build a Christ-centered community by preaching, teaching, and reaching our community through Christ-centered ministries.

Paul’s mission was to build a Christ-centered community through the church where Timothy was left to pastor. One of the tasks used to do that was preaching the word. In 2 Timothy, Paul was going to die soon in prison and wanted to make sure Timothy knew what things were most important. We see 3 steps to fulfilling our mission to preach in 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

We are called to preach the gospel. We learn about our task, about the times, and about the traits that are necessary in this message. Will you accept the mission in 2020? Pray and commit that God will use you to bring at least one person to Him this year. Preach.