Redeemer Youth: Recent Episodes
Andrew Merker
This is the Wednesday Night sermon audio podcast from Redeemer Youth, the youth ministry of Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, TX. Redeemer Youth is focused on the truth of the Word of God and relationships with other believers. For more information about Redeemer Youth and how you can get involved, please visit us online at redeemerchristianchurch.com!
Asaph laments and grieves the brokenness of his world, and rejoices that from God's perspective, the arrogant and wicked are nothing before the Lord. But then he realizes that he is also arrogant and wicked, and his sinned against the Lord himself. The logic in the Psalm makes clear he should expect judgment for his sin, but instead Asaph describes the wonderful grace of God that sustains him and is the strength of his heart and his hope in a broken world. In Part Two of this examination of Psalm 73, Austin Gravley describes how Asaph puts his trust in the Lord, his character, and his promises, and how he knows that by faith he will be with the Lord forever!
The book of Psalms gives us a rich collection of songs and poems that express the full range of human emotion while still being glorifying and honoring to God. When we look at the world and see how the wicked and the arrogant seem to prosper and get away with their evil, we can become overwhelmed with grief and convinced that righteousness and holiness matters. What do we do when we are overwhelmed by the sinfulness of the world? In Psalm 73, Asaph guides us on how we can gain God's perspective on the injustices in our world - and put our trust and hope in him!
Many people like Jesus. We welcome Jesus, and love Jesus and cry out for him to save us - but only as long as he saves us the way we want him to save us. We want him to make our lives better according to our plans and desires. Everyone likes Jesus when he plays by our rules and does what we want him to do. But the story of Easter shows us that Jesus isn’t the Savior of our design, he isn’t whatever we want him to be. He hasn’t just come to save us from our bad circumstances, while they are important to him, he has come to save us from something far worse than our circumstances and he has come to give us something far better than whatever “good life” that we can dream up for ourselves!
When we talk about the sovereignty of God, several questions are usually raised in the process. If God is sovereign, are we just robots? Why take responsibilities for our actions if God is in control? Does God have the right to be God?
In Part 7 of our series "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", Austin Gravley talks about how God is sovereign over all things and uses all things to accomplish his purposes, which are for his glory and the good of people all over the world that he saves through the gospel of grace!
The idea that God is omnipresent - that he is everywhere - is one of the most well known attributes of God. Even young children grasp this idea very early on. But what does it mean that God is everywhere? Is part of him in one part of creation, and another part of him somewhere else? Is creation God itself? How can God be fully present in all creation at all times, and yet be distinct and separate from it?
In Part 6 of our series "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", Austin Gravley talks about how God is fully present in all creation at all times, and how we cannot hide from God no matter how hard we try - and the good news is that, because of the cross of Christ, we do not have to hide!
All of are constantly experiencing change. No matter how much we try to stop it, our lives, circumstances, and world are always in flux. But what about God? Why is it such good news that God does not change - and unlike everything else in our lives, God cannot change?
In Part 5 of our series "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", Austin Gravley talks about how God is unchanging, and how the Gospel can only be truly good news because the unchanging God guarantees all of the promises and blessings of the Gospel to us in Christ!
In West Texas, we pride ourselves on our ability to be independent, self-made, hard working individuals who do not depend on others. In reality, none of us can live without the support of other individuals, systems, and tools that allow us to live, work, and create. But what about God? What does God need to be who he is? Is God dependent on anything, or unlike us, is he entirely self-existent?
In the fourth sermon of "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", Andrew Merker talks about how God is self-existent, and how God does not depend on anything or anyone to be fully God!
As humans, we have more knowledge about ourselves than at any point in human history. And yet, we like to pretend that we are mysterious and unknowable - both because we are afraid of being known and rejected, and because we love our sin. We can never fully know the incomprehensible God, but God fully knows us - and this is a good thing!
In the third sermon of "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", Austin Gravley talks about how God is incomprehensible, and how God knows us completely and perfectly - and still loves us!
Note: due to an error from the mixing board, this audio is a re-recording of the Wednesday evening sermon.
All of us have limitations. Our bodies need food, water, and rest to survive. We can only be in one place at one time. We don't have as much time, space, or resources as we'd like. The world tries to tell us these limitations are bad and obstacles to overcome, but what if they're not?
In the second sermon of "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", we talk about how God is infinite, and how good it is for us to live with our God-given limitations as we marvel at how awesome his infinity is!
All of us want to know who we are, or what we were made to be. We can look to the world for answers, but those answers will not fully satisfy us, because we were not created to reflect the world. Instead, as one theologian has said, "man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon the face of God."
In the first sermon of our new series "God Is", based on Jen Wilkin's "None Like Him", we introduce the concept of the doctrine of God and how knowing God helps us know ourselves better!