Long Beach Christian Fellowship: Recent Episodes
Long Beach Christian Fellowship
At Long Beach Christian Fellowship we are learning to live and love like Jesus. That discipleship is our goal. Love God, and love others where we live, work, and play all throughout Long Beach. These are our Sunday Morning and special gathering messages and we hope you'll join us!
In this message, we hear updates from the Pastoral Team and the beginning of a new series from Pastor Danny Cortez.
In this second message, we hear from Pastor Emerita Barbara Sunofsky in our series in Exodus.
In this special youth Sunday message, we hear from two of our high school students on living like Jesus. Because of technical difficulties the message audio was not recorded, but instead can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/live/1f2sIw1_cnQ?feature=share&t=2404
In this homily message, we hear from Pastor Emeritus Barb Sunofsky and guest teacher Susie Searight.
One of God's first commandments is to take care of the earth. And yet studies show that many churches neglect this fundamental value of creation care. We also explore how the excessive use of plastics has been harmful to people and nature.
In this message by our teaching team member, Colin Stringfellow, we explore what is means to pray like Jesus.
In this message by guest teacher, Kristin Keintz, we explore what is means to live like Jesus.
The book of Leviticus contains many laws that seem foreign to the modern reader. But one of the keys to understanding it was by understanding the moral reasoning behind why they existed. From there we can gain new insight with how Jesus related to and fulfilled the law.
If God is love, then what does power mean to this loving God? Powerlessness seems to be gods starting point; Jesus identified with the powerless. And all of his lessons were about love, his power, which came from the Holy Spirit is a path towards humility, and serving one another through empowering them all, and nothing is more dangerous than power if it is not deeply rooted in love.
As we are transformed by the unconditional and unending love of Jesus, we learn to love others in the same way. We practice laying aside our biases and preconceptions and own agenda and, instead we choose to see people the way way that Jesus does, looking for the humanity and imago dei of the person right in front of us.
Christ goes right back to where we retreat, and where we’ve been wounded to restore us, to call us again, and to free us from the bondage of shame.
The beauty of Resurrection Sunday is that it is a reminder that in Christ the dead coming to life is not a one time event, but is a pattern of restoration of all things.
Scripture does not silence the cry of the suffering, and yet suffering remains a mystery. Perhaps it's because it is so deeply connected to love. In commanding us to love, God also invites us to suffer. So suffering is for those of us who will be known as Christians by our love.
In this message we looked at New Testament Scriptures that reference Jesus' tears and how His tears reveal His tender and grieving heart. Knowing that grief will be a part of life until we reach the fullness of God's presence in Heaven, we are invited to embrace and navigate our own grief.
*The beginning of this message was cut off. Please forgive our technical difficulties!
Jesus lived a life that was patterned after his sermon on the mount. It was a life that showed us that loving one’s neighbor was the way of ending the cycles of violence throughout human history. Jesus tells us that praying a blessing rather than a curse is key to the way of God’s kingdom.
In living like Jesus, how can we adopt a Godly sense of dependence when our culture emphasizes individualism and self-reliance? We must actively pursue an intimate connection/relationship with Christ thru consistent communication (prayer/bible reading/community with each other), even during times of pruning to produce good “fruit” (good works stemmed from Christlike character). It’s only through living a life connected to the SOURCE, we glorify God through Christlike character in service to each other.
Jesus is necessarily and consistently disappointing IF I believe He is accountable to my expectations or demands. We can also find reassurance in looking at his own human experience of disappointment, abandonment, and pain that he refuses to retreat into divinity, even in his and our darkest moments.
Jesus' baptism and subsequent time and temptation in the wilderness give each of us a glimpse into what it means to be human and the risk of holding on to who God is and who God says we are even at our most vulnerable.
In scripture, gentleness is always talked about as a positive thing. We are called to face our own fears of weakness by releasing judgment and vengeance to God as we live in mercy with each other.
Christian joy is knowing the truest things about you are untouchable. Christian joy is honesty, intimacy, and freedom.
Even though Jesus was always focused on his mission, he lived a life that was unhurried which enabled him to not be swayed by the urgent. This message explores what that means in the way we learn to live like Jesus.
As we look to Christ we see that humility is not just a periodic action, but is essential in the very nature of the incarnation. We see Christ setting down His divine place to be eye to eye with us and how that calls us to set down whatever we might hold as a reason to look down on anyone else.
In our first week of the "Living like Jesus" series, we look at one of the overlooked realities about what it means to live like Jesus - which is to be human. The divine makes his home with the stuff of life, the material, the embodied, the soil becomes holy ground. When we look at how to live like Jesus we pause to push back against the temptations to be purely theoretical or philosophical and remember we are created human, and it is good.
On Vision Sunday each year the LBCF leadership reveals what they sense is the movement of God's spirit and the direction for the upcoming year. Our pastoral team shared a vision of returning to foundational language in our community and seeing how those will be lived out in the community now. Words like adoption, ambassador, and abundance as well as our slogan "learning to live and love like Jesus" will be anchors but this year will be teaching and planning around how those values live out practically.
We see in scripture that the life of Christ is not one into more ease, more worldly success, or greater power but instead a descent into service, sacrifice, and self-giving love.
Angels served a specific purpose in delivering a message that Christ was coming. Angels were everywhere in the birth narratives of Christ but afterward, they largely disappeared. We find that God now chooses to use people to point others to Christ. We have become God’s messengers.
In this Advent message, we see that God's love is amazing because it always involves a covenant. From the very beginning, he marries us, and calls us his bride. It's not silly, and it's not easy, but it is true and good. It involves suffering, which always has joy in the midst of it. Let's none of us settle for less.
God demonstrates how much He loves us by choosing to be with us, regardless of what we go through. This Advent season, how does leaning into the reality of Immanuel shape the way we love and are with others in the areas we live, work, & play?
As we focus on Christ this Advent season we see in Ephesians it is Christ who is called our peace and we look at how the incarnation is not a self-help guide to quell our troubles, but an immediate and intimate presence amidst chaos in the person of Jesus.
Jesus's way of interpreting the Bible isn't as easy as we think it is. His ways of using scripture are deeply challenging. It is easier, after all, to read scripture for what we want to see than for what he wants us to see. How did he read and view scripture? Jesus brought to them an awareness as to how God was acting in their present time...he brought them to the God of the now, not the God of then. He did this by taking time aware for silence and prayer and to listen to the Father. He did this by reading and meditating on his sacred scriptures. He did this in the company of others, he had a spiritual community. He did this by deep deep dependence upon the Holy Spirit and then promised us that we would have that same Spirit. (note: unfortunately, the recording experienced a glitch throughout, we apologize for this distraction and inconvenience).
As we continue the series on discernment, we consider how we walk discernment out in areas of ambiguity by holding a posture of curiosity that asks God "What are You up to in this moment?", waiting to hear His answer, and responding to guidance in trust and obedience.
As we continue in our journey to learn rhythms of discernment this week we explore discernment through silence and discernment through speaking. Then we get to put that into practice with Lectio Divina on Romans 12:1-2.
As we learn rhythms of discernment we are reminded to look back and forward at the story of God and our place in it, calling upon God's faithfulness and our hope in the coming kingdom.
It’s not enough to say “the Bible says…”. What’s important is how Jesus read and applied Scripture. Jesus often challenged the traditional reading and application of scripture in favor of a compassionate and life-giving posture. This is the hermeneutic that the first disciples employed as they navigated difficult subject matters. This is also how we are invited into our own discernment processes.
As we seek after the good gift of discernment we have to start and be constantly tethered to a fear of the Lord, obedience to Him, and a reverence for His image in others.
In this message, we explore learning to trust in the mystery of God’s love, which is so expansive that it is incomprehensible and yet lives inside of each of us and in all of our stories.
In this message, we look at how we can celebrate in times of doubt and unrest because of God's faithfulness to complete the work in us that He started.
If we are willing to be face to face with God, we might find that we also come face to face with ourselves, willing and able to be honest with ourselves with others, and with God. Jacob's wrestling was an honest one and God wants that from us. We are challenged to come and wrestle for the blessing. And then to walk with a new name and limp forever after, transformed.
This message on the book of Philemon explores the apostle Paul's view of a way of unity that's rooted in Christ.
I want to share stories about my personal journey towards loving others as I have also learned to love and accept myself. I've discovered that these things aren't mutually exclusive, but rather, they are intertwined. This has been difficult because it has forced me to uncover my own prejudices. Genesis tells us that God created the world as good and beautiful, and our own spiritual formation is about uncovering that beauty.
In Romans 14-15:13 we enter into a 1st-century debate plaguing Roman house churches regarding dietary restrictions. Paul instead of advocating for one side or the other invites both to the table where the shared costly fellowship will reflect God's glory to a world full of tribal divisiveness.
In this last message on our series Jesus and Women, we look at the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.
In a context surrounded by storms, fear, and chaos, a remarkable woman who has been ill for twelve years shows us what faith in Jesus should look like.
In this first message in the series on women and Jesus, Ms. Mary discusses what the gospel says and doesn't say - about this familiar passage and how her story is both a comfort and a commission for each of us.
Camille & Esther Ntoto, leaders of our ministry partners Africa New Day, bring the message this morning. Camille notes that God has called each one of us specifically to fulfill a particular calling. Everyone is able to respond “I am the ONE” (God’s chosen one).
At the heart of Jesus’ ministry is caring for the poor. This care is especially prominent in the Gospel of Luke as the author cites it as Jesus’ mission. Jesus through various parables and judgments against religious leaders reiterates why this is at the heart of what it means to be followers of Jesus. To be good stewards, Jesus teaches, that we must be mindful of those in need as we wait for Christ’s return.
In the Good Samaritan parable, Jesus once again points his questioners to the need for grace and to the need for us to create neighbors by being neighbor to each other.
This Sunday we make space to encounter the Spirit through prayer, reflection, and communion. In a Lectio Divina format, we read some passages from Ephesians and reflect on the two questions: "what do you hear God saying to you in these texts?" and "What do you imagine God saying to our community in these texts?"
Both of these short parables tell us something about the character and attributes of God. First of all, he looks for things that are lost...he searches for us...as a shepherd. He is faithful and merciful to his sheep! In ancient Israel, shepherds, considered "unclean," were never clean enough to worship with God's people in God's presence, they were outsiders. And then there is the woman, also a second-class citizen, and also representing God and his character! And notice how they celebrated! What is it that you have lost?
This parable is about the widow and the judge or rather outcast + widow +identity + perseverance = faith
As Christ followers, we are commissioned to serve GOD and love each other. Through the parable of the wicked farmers, we ask ourselves three pivotal questions which help guide us as we seek to expand His Kingdom in the areas we live, work and play.
A teaching on the Parable of the Shrewd Manager and a reminder of the freedom we have in Jesus to give our full selves to enjoying, sharing, and partaking in the good news.
In today's message, we will see how God's kept promise of His Spirit to His people enables the Church to do His work. In Pentecost, we see together a wide diversity with Jesus Christ as the goal, at the center.
This Sunday we celebrated baptisms at LBCF. The Bible calls us to our baptism as an act in community, in family, and as a practice of laying our lives down daily. Jesus modeled this public declaration in his life and invites us to do the same.
In the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee, we are invited to imagine and wonder where we see ourselves in this story and how often we are both the proud Pharisee, wanting to do everything ourselves, and the tax collector, desperately in need of mercy from our Savior.
In the parable of the prodigal son, we see not just one but both sons had missed the heart of the father - a heart that shows us to love without keeping others in our debt.
In the parable of The Rich Fool, Jesus warns us of the dangers of greed. Jesus shows us that we don't always notice how selfish choices darken our ability to enter God's kingdom. So this parable calls us towards a biblical idea of stewardship, one that calls us towards love and justice.
In this new series we are looking at how we are called to renew our imagination through story. In this parable Jesus calls us to imagine the Vineyard Owner as one who is both just and full of grace and compassion, and structures the entire day around making sure that scandalous grace is evident to all.
For this message we look at how the invitation into eternal life is not just one of receiving but in turn one of offering life to those around us
This message explores the story of Jesus clearing the temple on the second day of Holy Week. Christ brings down the walls built to keep people from close relationship with Him. What does it look like to be present with our self, including our grief, and present with our loving God?
As we read the story of Jesus' triumphal entry Steve calls us to wonder how or where we might have shown up in our own calls for rescue.
Dave and Troy share the great justice-bringing work their organization is doing for girls at risk, providing them with community and education.
In this episode of the LBCF podcast, Pastor Ryan discusses the biblical pictures of the Church as a body, and a family where we are all siblings. When we learn how transformational that is we can be better neighbors and more filled with the awe and gratitude at the fact we are seated at the table at all.
In this message on Church as family Barb looks at Romans 12 as a great pathway to a beautiful interdependence with each other.
Jesus calls us not only to claim to be for people but to stick with them, and how we do that can be the way people experience God's compassion on Earth.
Deepening our sense of community through the spiritual practice of listening+seeing one another. This message explores Acts 10 (Peter's Vision) and how setting aside religious and societal norms to truly see and hear one another expands the kingdom of heaven here in Long Beach and beyond.
God, by the power of your Holy Spirit and a growing knowledge of your Son, could we: Do Justice, with you, Love Mercy, for each other, Walk Humbly, for ourselves; All for the sake of making your name great, through Love, in all the places we live, work and play, and all the new places your spirit will call us.
As we discern God's vision we are called to repentance, rest, quietness, and trust. Each of those behaviors builds in us a new-creation mindset and combats the anxiety, pride, and self-reliance that much of our world considers assets.
In order for us to understand the joy of the first people that celebrated Christ’s birth, we have to understand the context in with Jesus came. Jesus came in the fulness of time—a time marked by darkness and evil. A time of great misunderstanding of who God is. Jesus came to show us what the Old Testament could not. He showed us what God is like. Jesus shows us what love looks like in this darkest of times.
The love we see in the advent story of John 1 is this: God refusing to be distant, drawing near, making us not just neighbors but goes even further to be called the sons and daughters.
In baptism, we exchange our broken and missing/incomplete humanity for the life of Christ, which also empowers us to join in that creative, redemptive work of making peace. Restoring what's missing, healing what's broken.
In this busy season, it's easy to be in a rush that we miss seeing and participating in the divine presence of God. Like the first advent, when God came disguised in a humble state, the sacred is often concealed in the ordinary and mundane. But if we can pause and listen, we can be brought into wonder over God's creation.
This message prepares the way for Advent as we look at Isaiah 40:1-5 and the three key themes of Comfort, Prepare, and Wait.
The Church has to be constantly on watch not to be obsessed with the fantasy or anxiety of the future, nor with the shame or pride of the past, but to use our history and our hope as companions of wisdom to live rightly now.
The Psalms provide a poetic look at how we can look honestly at our own humanity, our own failures, and still have a deep regard for hope and joy.
Psalm 127 reminds us to re-orient ourselves to the love of God. By doing so, we are able to find rest in the midst of all the concerns of life. It is when we find our identity as God’s beloved that we are able to have clarity in his will for our lives.
As children of God, we can hold happiness at the same time as we lament, are sad and grieving…In the midst of every difficulty we get to contend; to battle for our happiness. And a powerful weapon in that battle is to play! It is a fight of faith. Jesus was a happy man!! He celebrated, he danced and he played! We are learning to live and love, just the way that he did! And we are meant to find happiness in the journey of learning!
Continuing in our series on the Psalms of Ascent, this message explores Psalm 126 and the topic of joy. How do we experience the joy of the Lord as our strength in all seasons of life?
Read as a continuation of Psalms 123 and 124, Psalm 125 invokes poetic imagery that invites us to retreat into the goodness of Christ, abide in the solidity of God’s refuge, and delight in the offered reward of peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 123 and 124 call us to hear the prayers of oppressed people who have sought after God’s deliverance. In these Psalms, we are invited to align ourselves with the work of God. We are given the ability to hear how God’s people have prayed and are praying so that we might open our own ears to the cries of those who are in need.
A mature faith is one of participation. Maybe the 'gladness' we are all seeking is hiding just on the other side of participation.
"As we raise our eyes to the hills and see all of the ways people are trying to save themselves, we remember our help comes from the LORD, every other way will be a god found sleeping."
In Psalm 120 the Psalmist takes the high road…he wants revenge and retribution, but in calling out to God, he is leaving that up to God! Can we trust God with our hurts? Eugene Peterson wrote that this is a Psalm of Repentance. Repentance reorients us; turns us away from the lies that the world tells us, and from the lies we tell ourselves. Repentance points us to the love of Christ. Jesus loves me, us!! This WE know!!
This message on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well explores how wide and how deep the love of Christ is. There's no boundary that Jesus is unwilling to cross in order to draw us into His life. There is no barrier that can keep us from His love.
In this message, we examine what it means to be a disciple of Christ and to lean into the freedom and joy of discipleship as we deny ourselves, and commit to joining together in Jesus' ministry.
Jesus chooses us to practice true compassion in today’s world of callousness and cruelty. By seeing people the way Jesus sees us, we’re moved to display His love in real and tangible ways to those who are hurting and broken around us. Acting in true compassion glorifies God and deepens our relationship with Him and each other in community.
Jesus came so that we can have life and have it abundantly. However, we often forget how wide, deep, and great our access to abundance truly is. This message explores how we as a community of Jesus (The God who is present in every moment) can enjoy the life that God intends for us to live.
We see in Christ and His word a hefty endorsement of both/and: the need to synthesize data and the experience of God in our lives - and the humility to submit both before the Lord and to each other.
For many Christians, God’s justice is mainly related to being justified by God as a means to salvation. But the scriptures show us that biblical justice is more often related to restorative justice—the idea of making things right towards vulnerable people who have been taken advantage of. From the prophets to Jesus, we find that God is calling us to make the world a more just place by seeing that each person is created in God’s image and must be treated with value.
This message explores how Christ's forgiveness for us leads us into the freedom to forgive others.
The gospel of peace will and should absolutely feel like an assault on our isolated comforts and excess.
Salvation is something we can look at to as what we have been saved from, what we are saved through, and what we are saved to. We look at the finished and unfinished work of salvation in our lives as disciples, and what role we have to play in this work of doing God’s will on Earth as it is in heaven. Finally we see that salvation is not about escape, but about wholeness, and in that we can walk through brokenness knowing Christ is with us.
At the center of all things is a love story that has existed since before the beginning. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have danced in a movement of love that has brought each person of the godhead eternal joy. In creation, God moved to bring all things into this dance but sin has kept us from entering. But through adoption, we are able to participate by moving in step through the notes of love, kindness, justice, grace, and mercy. And we are able to experience the joy of the Trinitarian relationship most evidently when we do so in community, with one another.
We get to live out of the inclusive principles of adoption in community with others. It is "the entire business of living by faith." This involves the full participation in the community of faith of all of us who have been adopted, regardless of our ethnic origin, socioeconomic status or gender, AND it is very very good news!!!
We are “a priesthood of believers” and we focus on empowering each other to walk in the “good works” God has prepared for us to do. And none of this speaks against a church having leadership…or pastors and elders, etc!…but it does create a flattening of roles…a level field of believers at the foot of the cross. Heirs with Christ, a royal priesthood….called to labor together for the sake of LOVE.
The self-sacrificial sort of love we see in the Good Samaritan that chooses the other, even in the face of a compromised reputation or legalism, is the way we walk out the Great Commission to a hurting world.
What if our pursuit of Christ was so genuine it would compel others towards Christ rather than a title or building?
The good news of the gospel isn't just about getting to heaven, but it's about bringing God's kingdom on earth.
A discussion on Pentecost and God’s peoples’ radical response to the enabling of the Spirit. What would it look like for our community to live and love audaciously?
What would be different for us if we believed we were highly valued by God? Jesus' high priestly prayer revealed to us how much God thinks of us. It motivates us to set ourselves apart to God, to be sensitive to His voice, and respond to the people around us in a naturally supernatural way.
Jesus warns us about the mistreatment we can expect, people will be offended by us…and although he is leaving in body, he is sending us the Holy Spirit, there is no reason for us to fear. In fact, we, Ecclesia, the called out ones, the church, are meant to thrive under the persecution that comes from being found offensive.
Jesus emphasized the importance of bearing fruit as disciples of Christ. Specifically, he taught us that the fruit we bore came from being connected to him which resulted in us loving one another. As a community, we are to lean into this love even in the midst of our differences. Because it is then that we will show to the world that we are his disciples.
In Jesus, we see our good shepherd, the one who knows us, and whose voice we follow. He lays down his life for us and shows us how to live in the world as we care for each other.
Christ is alive and is as real to us today as He was when he appeared before the disciples. We experience the true revelation of Christ through the community we build and the people we encounter as we share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.
Jesus' love secures us and liberates us from our negative thoughts/emotions and restores us to live out our new life in Christ by serving people in the areas we work, live, and play.
In this Easter message, we talk about how we affirm the resurrection every time we live into our Baptism in Christ, and we deny it every time we put on our old selves who have died with Christ. He is risen indeed.
In this message, we ask the question: what if our engagement with the political world would be marked by our baptism and commitment to our Christian allegiance?
A message on the certainty of God's promises and a reminder to experience God's presence within us. Living a life set on the center.
God’s covering gift of Grace sets us free from a defeated “But God…” mindset in which we disqualify ourselves, into a victorious one where the Lord speaks “But, God!” over us, and calls us qualified and loved.
You can watch The Bible Project Video referenced in the message here: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/character-of-god-grace/
Are you hearing the invitation? To this conversation and beyond? We, the people of God, are being invited by God to journey with him, and the journey is always out of exile and towards shalom. Jesus was a teacher, a Rabbi…we are meant to be learners, curious, open ears and eyes, always! Not “knowers”!! And learning means we transform, continually…we change, we are people of the change, meant to move others forward with us...into long-term HOPE!
There is a need for us as the church to listen to what is really at the heart of the race conversation. But the question is, can we hear truth even when it’s difficult? God invites us to pay attention so that we can discover the beauty of Christ in every person.
God’s design is unity, collaboration, celebration, hospitality, and shalom. Through this series on race, we will see how that was fractured and how in Christ that reality is present. We will see how obviously that cycle of broken shalom and pain is evident in our world and unfortunately also the Church. And finally, we will look at its call for us to embrace the honesty that moves us to repentance and the love that allows for the movement back into that beautiful design.
What is your first reaction when you hear that “someone is following you”?I guess if you’re on social media, that’s a good thing, right? Or if you’re in a movie, it might not be a good thing. In movies, if someone is following you, it’s often for nefarious reasons. But there is Another Who is in strong pursuit of you. In this message, we'll discuss how much Jesus, like a shepherd, nurtures, cares, and pursues us in ways that we may not have thought of before.
In this message, we look at how God meets us in the “rugged, barren, rocky terrain” of life when we become aware of His presence, His guidance & His provision. As we trust Him, He strengthens, restores, and rightly leads us in times of anxiety, loss, frustration & fatigue.
Isaiah 60
Samantha Smidt. In this devotion, we look at what it means to be a contemplative charismatic community and how the contemplative posture compels us to action for the sake of God and others. We take a moment to put it into practice with a contemplative exercise using an adapted prayer of Isaiah 60 from The Work of the People.
This Vision Sunday, the new Pastoral team shares a message for our community as we look back on where we have been, where the Spirit is moving now, and where He is taking us. The earnest of the holy spirit is like a downpayment of where He wants us to go next where everything that is old is new again, from the new way the elders and pastors are working hand-in-hand to the way our community is working to bring shalom here in Long Beach.
The posture of humility is necessary if we are to understand how to love people around us. As Dallas Willard writes, “Understanding is the basis of care,” or another way to put it—Understanding is the basis of love. If we aren’t willing to listen carefully and set aside our defenses, our ability to love will be hampered.
In this message, Pastor Barbara looks at the discipline of stillness, our stillness that allows us to hear God, no matter how loudly or quietly He is speaking…and being still is so very different from silence and being silent!! Just as we are called into contemplative silence (“Be still and know that I am God,” “For God alone my soul in silence waits”), when something needs to be said, particularly if it makes our voice shake, God asks us to speak. This is liberating — God not only “asks” us to speak, but God promises to be with us. So stillness and silence and speaking out, are ALL essential elements of a fully-rounded Christian life.
At LBCF we talk about being contemplative charismatics, which is a great inward and upward life - and as a means of caring for the soil of our souls we also must have a good outward life towards our neighbors. Through that we taste and see how good our God is now.
Revelation is not about a terrible war that will happen at the end of time. It's about then and it's about now. It's about the war that's been happening since creation not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. it's about Jesus Christ the lamb who reigns on the throne.
In this message, we hear from the new Pastoral team as they teach on John's message to the church in Revelation 13-18 and what that means for us today.
Jesus paid the cost to redeem us from our personal sin and the curse of sin on humanity. How do we get hold of our "Boughtness" and how does it make a difference? Recognizing our need for His forgiveness and understanding the price that was paid for us to have a relationship with Jesus is what gives us perspective in the midst of the difficulties that we see presently in our day, as well as the tribulation and judgment here in the book of Revelation. He IS worthy of all of our honor and praise and thanksgiving and glory.
John’s emphasis for the seven churches in Revelation 1-4 (as was the prophets for their time), was action in this life, and a hope and trust that the all-loving and powerful God has the future.
Jude encourages Christ followers to remain vigilant in faithfully living out the Good News when challenged with deceit and falsehoods. In doing so, He keeps us in His love, which results in freedom, joy, protection, and blessings.
In this message, we look at what it means to live in the truth of Jesus Christ’s love as we show hospitality to one another and to the stranger. The church addressed in this letter is in disagreement about loving those God has given them to love, namely the stranger and is following the leadership of a man that believes he alone is enough. How often do we live out of fear rather than out of the love God gives us? How does that affect how we love others?
In this message, we explore the truth that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth of the gospel is that Christ has commanded us to love not just those that are easy to love but also those that we may find difficult to love.
The grand story of the Bible is “one of love.” We are designed for love; to be loved by God, to love God, and to love others; to respond to love if you will! So LBCF, can we become this community that demonstrates something even approaching the love of God? Are we willing to make mistakes trusting that love covers a multitude of sins? Can we rise above the ordinary and become even more generous, open, inclusive, honest, and wise? Can we care for one another with fierce and healing love, even those among us who we don’t find so easy to love? Can we love those outside of our boundaries, welcoming them in large and gracious ways? Can we change without losing ourselves? Can we repent, ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness, and go again? Can we work to make community happen even in this COVID pandemic? Because goodness and love are not accidental…they happen when we allow ourselves to be fully loved by a radical God. We love, because he first loved us. AND, the world is scary as hell!!! LOVE ANYWAY.
How do you hang onto your faith in difficult times? The pathway that helps us not lose our own secure footing, is the practice of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. We learn to receive His grace for ourselves and give of His grace to others. Live out what the Scriptures say, be consistent with other scriptures, and warn others of things to come.
Peter reminds us that our Christian suffering is not met with force or rebellion, but a subversive charge to love and bless and grieve - not alone, but together.
In this message, we discuss the true potential of the tongue as stated in James 3. During this season of anxiety, confusion and injustice, we can either speak words of life or death in our daily interactions. What will we choose?
And what is hope? We fight, suffer, contend, and grieve for our hope! It is defiant and resistant; rooted in our grief, anger, suffering, and despair. And it is not finished with me yet! And when it disappoints, I will hope anyway…and it turns into faith. And I assert that the best kind of faith is the one that has adapted to change, in order to survive.
In this message, we explore how the author of Hebrews compares Christ and His good news to what the audience and we today hold in high regard. He encourages us to question, what are we wrapping our identities in? What are we holding in higher esteem than Christ? Ultimately we are called to wrap our identities in the supreme goodness of Christ who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature.
This book of Philemon is crazy rich and multi-layered. One of the sources that I read, James Earl Massey, calls it a “social layer cake!” Think about that! We’ve got power, Paul, at the top and “uselessness” at the bottom, which is Onesimus! And then, the entire middle layer of the cake; Philemon, his society and social construct.
We need so much of what Paul wrote in his letter to Titus. The US church, like the church in Crete, needs to be reminded of our true hope, our true allegiance. We have to be reminded of our identity, a continual baptism into a life in Christ. That frees us up to pursue the good works that make way for the gospel.
If you knew you were dying and wanted to communicate what you valued as the most important thing in life, who would you communicate that to? and what would you say to them? Paul chose Timothy. He told Timothy to value his heritage - those principles his mom and grandma had taught him. He told him to value the Scriptures - to study them and hold fast to them. He told him to value relationships.
In this message, we look at Paul’s closing words to Timothy and how our lives are shaped by the gospel we believe. A life lived from a False Gospel is marked by discontentment. A life lived from the True Gospel of Jesus Christ breeds contentment and bears the fruits of the Spirit.
Paul writes to encourage young Timothy as they lead a community that they love dearly. In doing so, he hopes to ensure that all believers will be filled with the love of God. Let’s consider together, Paul’s view of good news. How wide, how deep, and how great is God’s love?
Through Paul’s letter to a young community in Thessalonica, we are encouraged that God chooses us to glorify Him by living out our calling on earth during a challenging 2020. With the imminent return of Christ, we are also motivated to remain faithful and persevere with the strength and courage Jesus provides during these unprecedented times.
Paul summarizes it this way—a church characterized by faith, hope, and love. These three terms, properly understood, describe a radical, THE RADICAL!!! the revolutionary movement of God's Spirit in and through his people. We are asked to do “unto the least of these, as doing unto Jesus” Because that is where Jesus lives! That is where we find him, we don’t bring him, he is already there!! That is how the kingdom comes to earth, how we walk toward the reign of God. If LBCF is ever to truly learn to live and love like Jesus, we must always be open to the surprises of history, to as Nestor O. Miquez says, “the unthinkable that bursts into reality from what has been excluded, to see what is not that undoes what is.”
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we see his desire for the Church to be defined by love and purposeful in their view of Jesus as Christ; the unifying force that holds all of creation together.
The Welcoming Prayer video referenced in the sermon.
In this message, we explore Paul’s letter to Philippi as he writes about the power in doing the little things, like praying for one another. It’s the way that we can be with one another when we’re not physically with one another.
What does it look like, as followers of Jesus, to live out the “big G” Gospel in the areas we work, live and play? From the second half of Ephesians, we discuss ways, which we fulfill our calling to each other as the multi-ethnic family of God while dealing with our own struggles of individualism.
Paul is in prison for insisting that multiculturalism is essential and core to the gospel. He begins by retelling the story of the gospel now that the mystery of the Gentile believers has been made plain. In contrast to an individual plan of salvation, God is playing a much bigger game that leaves us asking: what has been the driving force of our ekklesia, our church?
“Unless we are willing to die… To ideas, to rules that are no longer useful, to ideologies, nothing new… No new life, new fruit, is possible. I want to challenge us as a community to die together and with Christ, be raised as kingdom bringers to everyone we encounter through bringing love. I ask again, what have we done with our freedom?”
Paul, in the introduction to Galatians really firmly presses against a competing gospel that was showing up in the earliest church - that being that the offer of belonging to God's chosen people had any other qualifications than the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul calls these early churches to a unity that he saw as an already present reality in the kingdom of God.
When we come to one another with our OWN weakness fully in front of us, it doesn’t stop us from saying what we need to say, but it helps us to do it in a way that has a better chance of being received. And maybe more importantly, helps US to receive from others what WE need to receive.
We honor Jesus and fulfill our responsibility as His Ambassadors by prioritizing and living out His message of reconciliation (bring others back to God through Jesus)
Paul is alerting the Corinthians to Satan’s divide-and-conquer strategy and urges them to resist with the truth that they are inescapably one body with many parts. Because we are made in the image of a triune God and can do nothing other than bear his image of oneness, we exist in loving equal relationship with one another. This is not something we attain, but a oneness based in the Holy Spirit. Our standard of wellbeing in the body of Christ is the whole body well-being, not just any one part.
E-Course mentioned in the message: https://www.resmaa.com/courses
Jesus, He IS GOOD! His outrageous love attracted people! His wild holiness called to the people…it still calls. His love accepted, never condemned. We focus on sin-morality, Jesus on grace-love. He chose always and foremost, relationships over rules and regulations. He disturbed the status quo, railed against injustice, hung out with highly questionable types…and began a revolution of love and unity.
Paul in his letter to the Romans guides the thought of the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians to understand how important it is for the mission of God that the church excel in unity and love in their rapidly changing, and tense world.
Paul clearly defines the gospel in Romans 1-8. Just because we may “think we know” the gospel, doesn’t mean we don’t need to hear it again. Not only so, but we need the gospel today, right now. It is the pattern by which we grow: Hear from God when we’re out of alignment, what the Bible calls sin; Trust that Christ is enough and that He has made you right with God again and again; and Trust that He continues to set us free and that the internal conversations about you not being enough and not measuring up are simply not true.
The Christian faith often has us feeling ‘stuck’ in in-between and uncertain places. We don’t run from it to create our own certainty, but instead place our hope and trust in the person of Christ.
Acts 6-18 contains four critical stories of people taking radical risks that reveal the beauty of the Incarnate Kingdom. The stories of the Greecian Widows, The Ethiopian Eunuch, The Household of Cornelius, and the High City Council of Athens stir us to consider questions that help us find ourselves in these scriptures. We consider what the Holy Spirit might be leading us to risk during this pandemic that might reveal Incarnate Kingdom beauty.
Questions from the message:
How is the Holy Spirit leading you to come out from the edges or from the shadows?
How is the Spirit leading you to admit biases that are keeping you from the common good you desire?
How might the Spirit be leading you into a place of belonging?
What small step of following the Holy Spirit do you feel led to take?
How might the Spirit be revealing something more vividly that has always been there?
Do you desire to receive the Holy Spirit for the first time, or in more fullness in your life?
In what places of influence might the Spirit be giving you favor?
Are you feeling led to risk your reputation on behalf of the Lord of Heaven and Earth?
In this last message from Brandon & Rebecca Cook, we consider the resurrection pattern of life and how we engage with it day to day knowing that we serve a God that is always doing a new thing.
Whether we look at the early church or the life of Christ, we see that a spirit-filled life draws us, not further away from reality into an ethereal personal spirituality, but further into reality characterized by the good news for the poor, the broken, and the hurting in this life. As we draw parallels from the Pentecost events of Moses going up Sinai and returning with the law that would define the life of God’s people, we also see Christ ascending and delivering His spirit as the way by which the Church would live in the world now.
The gospels give us models for endings and new beginnings...and the way that Jesus ended, his ending always includes hope, it always includes new life, resurrection, and even his death includes life. In a crazy way the kingdom of heaven has come to earth and we, each of us, are invited to the party! Jesus is alive, and so should we be! Hallelujah!
In the narrative of Palm Sunday, we see the prominence of Jesus' relationship with Lazarus that draws people to follow Jesus and to desert the leading priests. We consider how Jesus' relationship with Lazarus reveals the kind of King and Kingdom Jesus is establishing. In this time of global crisis, we cry Hosanna, and choose to love others with the love we know from our humble King.
Praise Song for the Pandemic Video | watch here https://youtu.be/zCYoikGaI6U
One of Jesus' closest friends was the Apostle John, writer of this gospel and 4 other New Testament books. John spent a lot of time with Jesus and has some INCREDIBLE things to tell us about Him. Why does this make a difference? How does this make a difference for us in our day to day life, especially in light of the fears and uncertainties of the Coronavirus outbreak? Is there ANY certainty anywhere? The Bible has a resounding YES answer to that question. Let's "lean into" Him who is certain in these uncertain times.
How can we love others the way Jesus wants to love through us, as we deal with our own anxiety and uncertainty? Jesus embraces us, holds us tight, and reassures us even in our fear and doubt as we go through these difficult times together. We are set free to love others as we simply declare, "Jesus, you are invited here, you are welcome". What are the ways we can invite Jesus in our homes and conversations this week to bring his presence of peace?
Looking at Luke 13-18 we see Jesus moving love into action. At the end of chapter 14, Jesus calls people to count the cost of what it means to love our neighbor. Love does the things no one wants to do and Jesus calls that the flavor of his people. We begin with a responsive reading of Psalm 91 led by Pastor Barbara. You can find the responsive psalm on our LBCF Live page. Ryan ends the message with a Welcome Prayer which can also be found on the Live page.
Jesus sends his disciples out to proclaim and make present the kingdom of God, without taking a cloak, a money bag, or so much as a walking stick. In this message, we explore how Jesus initiates us into trust and how, in the spiritual journey, we become ensigns and outposts of the kingdom of God. We can enter this journey—this initiation into a new way of living—at all times, by practicing the principles Jesus lays out for us.
If you would enter into the wilderness, do not begin without a blessing. Do not leave without hearing who you are, beloved! Named by the one who has traveled this path before you. You bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In the unique way that is only you. We bring the kingdom TODAY!!
We have been conditioned to see God the All-Powerful, and indeed, the Creator-God must be beyond our comprehension of power. Yet scripture whispers to us a both-and: God is also the All-Vulnerable one. In this message, we explore what it means to see God the All-Vulnerable and how this is a God we cannot just worship and not just fear, but also love.
In this week's reading of Mark 7-11, we see Jesus exhort his followers to be a people of "Not so with you" compared to the ways of empire. We consider why Jesus insists that we suffer and how to endure the suffering that comes with being an ambassador for the Kingdom of God. Together we engage the contemplative practice of “Palms Up” to consider the value of the suffering we are currently enduring as a people of "Not so with you".
“Palms Up” Exercise includes 4 steps: (1) Show Up, (2) Pay Attention, (3) Cooperate with God, (4) Release Outcome. For more information check out palmsup.co