Sojourn Woodstock: Recent Episodes
Sojourn Woodstock
Connect with the sermons and teachings of Sojourn Woodstock as we seek to live as a caring community who proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ to our city of Woodstock, GA as well as the world. It's our prayer that through the gospel teachings of this podcast, you'd be encouraged and further equipped to live a life of faithful love of Christ as you share His gospel, pray for those around you, serve the least of these, and engage your city for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
Due to a sudden power issue, there are about 10minutes missing from the beginning of the sermon. Please view Dave's attached manuscript to read the passages that were missing in this recording.
Joy is perhaps our greatest longing . . . joy in a relationship is the key to our deepest needs and is essential to true and lasting healing. There is only one eternal place where we find joy like this: in the presence and person of Christ.
The Gospel awakens us to the beauty of God and motivates us to live as witnesses to His work in this world. We bear witness to the Kingdom through what we say and how we live. The good news of Jesus is shared and shown.
In a world bent on separating secular and sacred, we declare that the whole earth is God’s, everything in it and that, because of Jesus, every moment, no matter how ‘mundane,’ matters for the Kingdom. Because of Christ, everything we do matters. Embracing the call of love, justice, redemption and restoration, we join with God as we work to make the Kingdom visible with our lives.
We all long to be caught up in something greater than ourselves and to bear witness to the things we have experienced. Sin deadens our hearts towards God and causes us to be too easily satisfied in lesser loves and the things that are fleeting.
The gospel of Jesus wakes us up to the beauty of God. God has sent each of his sons and daughters to be his witnesses across the entire earth. A witness is someone who declares what they have seen and experienced. As Godʼs witnesses, we go to the ends of the earth to declare who God is and what he has done. At times, this means we not only say who God is and what he has done, but we show who he is through our actions. Sending his people into the world as witnesses is part of Godʼs plan to restore all things. This begins in our homes, moves to our neighborhood and city, and ultimately to the ends of the earth. Being a witness is not an activity you begin and end, but rather a way of living in which we see all aspects of our lives as opportunities to declare who God is and what he has done.
We are witnesses of God sent by God to proclaim the gospel. As witnesses, we are either embarrassed, apathetic or unashamed. We are ambassadors, sent by the King of Kings. As we proclaim the good news of heaven, we live as blessings to members of our community in mundane, everyday ways.
God did not just tell us who He is, He drew near to show us who He is and to be with us. In Christ, the divine is embodied, made known and made tangible. We serve a God who can be seen, touched and experienced. The gospel of Jesus and the good news of the Kingdom is not meant to simply be a message that is shared, it is meant to be revealed in power and made tangible in everyday life. When jesus sent his followers, he empowered them with the Spirit to not only declare the good news of the Kingdom but to make it known, to make it visible in displays of power, acts of mercy and restoration. We join with Christ praying, ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done’ as we work to make the kingdom visible with our lives.
The Kingdom of God is the place where what God wants done getsThis is a life that isnʼt just a “some day” life, but itʼs a life that is available to Godʼs people today. The gospel announces that life with God has come near to us and is once again available to all who put their faith in Jesus. Unlike any other way of living, Godʼs Kingdom calls us to a life that is truly worth everything we have. We believe God has gifted you and has placed you where you are on purpose.
It has always been God’s intent to declare His worth through a people who would reflect His glory throughout the world. Sin marred the image of God, but, through Christ, it is fully restored. It is God’s design to fill the earth with His image bearers and to scatter the church throughout all nations, so the whole world may behold the glory of God as it shines forth through the lives of people saved and changed by Jesus.
As disciples of Jesus, we seek to adopt His way of life. Our King came to be a servant of many. Lowering Himself, he took on the form of a servant that He might bless others. As a community, we declare Christ and model His heart to others as we show up to serve. Following the way of Jesus, we offer what we have for the good of others. Trusting in the power of Jesus, we are free to offer, even what ‘little’ we have, knowing that in the service of the Lord, we offer and Christ perfects.
At its core, the gospel is the Good News that God Gives. In Christ, God gives himself. And He does so in ways that should (and one day will) forever shock us. Our King, worthy of all honor, emptied himself (Phil 2:7). Christ came to be a servant of many (Matt. 20:28). Lowering Himself, he took on the form of a servant that He might bless others.
Sin turns our souls inward, distorting our view of God and others as we reorder the world around ‘the self.’ This ‘me-centered’ posture pulls us from the way of Jesus, tempting us to believe that our worth is bound up in our own achievements, comforts and power.
The gospel frees us from our self-obsession, our desperate search for significance, our deep desire for power and our constant need for approval so that we might love others from the heart.
As we begin a new school year, we are calling the Sojourn family to joyfully and expectantly press into the presence of God. Hear His invitation to draw near and delighting in all that Christ has won for us, we seek to experience life before the throne of grace.
Big Idea: Because the world is deceived, the Holy Spirit works through the church to show them their need for Jesus.
Points: The Holy Spirit Replaces Jesus' Presence The Holy Spirit Continues Jesus' Work The Holy Spirit Proclaims Jesus' Truth
Application: the church needs the Presence of Jesus and the Truth of Jesus to carry out the Work of Jesus, and it is the Holy Spirit who enables this. How are you enjoying the presence of Jesus? How are you standing on the truth of Jesus?
John 11:38-53 I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Key Verse: V38-40. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
John 11:28-37 Meeting the Weeping Savior in the Wilderness
Key Verse: V31-32. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet.
Key Verse: V14-16. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Prayer Focus: World Missions
John 10:1-10 | Pathways to Green Pastures (Vision for Lent)
Key Verse: V9-10. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Key Verses: V58. Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am! V51. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
KEY TEXT: Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” . . . “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (V32-34).
JAN 2 | John 7:1-16, 37-44. >> Life by the Spirit KEY TEXT: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (V37-38)
KEY TEXT: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out . . . For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (V37,40)
KEY THEMES: Good Pursues Sinners. In Christ, we are welcomed as we are. Christmas exists that we might believe the promise of God
KEY TEXT: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’ (V35)
KEY THEMES: Good News of the Gospel is that God Gives Himself. Jesus Meets our Need and Invites us to have our Fill.
KEY TEXT: - Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. . . . (V25) KEY THEMES: - When all Is Lost, Jesus Breaks Thru - In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light . . . the Light Shines in the Darkness.’ (1:4-5)