Soma Spokane Sermons: Recent Episodes
Soma Spokane
Our vision is Gospel Saturation: that every person in our region would have a regular encounter with the good news of Jesus Christ in both word and deed.
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 3-4 kind of work this week, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role?
This week, sermon summary
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 3-4 kind of work this week, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? This week, after the church is scattered, King Jesus is still orchestrating the story, and we get to see how the new Spirit-filled people of God take the Gospel to the ends of the known world.
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 3-4 kind of work this week, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? This week, the story of Stephen invites us to desire nothing less than the fullness of God's presence, always and forever. God's Holy Spirit has come to live in his people, the church, and he wants nothing less than our full lives, fully submitted, so that his presence would fill every corner of the Earth. If this is true, what will God do, who will he speak to, who will he have compassion on, and how will he call you to prioritize your energy, time, and money so that, by the power of his Holy Spirit through you, his mission would be accomplished?
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 3-4 kind of work this week, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? This week, we learn about how the kingdom of God will not be overcome, and neither will we!
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 3-4 kind of work this week, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? This week, our role is to repent and join in as the Spirit goes on the move out of the temple and begins to flow out of anyone who will join. The Spirit makes its way down the steps of the temple and into the homes of the followers of Jesus, demonstrating love and healing.
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 1-2 kind of work, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1.8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? To believe the Great Commission is for each of us and all of us together, to receive the Spirit in personal and corporate prayer and dependence, and to actively prepare for whatever opportunities the Spirit creates to bear witness to Jesus.
Through a study of the book of Acts, we're asking the Spirit to conform us to the patterns and practices of the early church — a people who love the lost like Jesus, give of themselves in rhythms of blessing and hospitality, and who seek to engage in curious, spiritual, and gospel conversations. We want the Spirit to do an Acts 1-2 kind of work, fulfilling Jesus’s promise in Acts 1:8: You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. What is our role? To believe the Great Commission is for each of us and all of us together, to receive the Spirit in personal and corporate prayer and dependence, and to actively prepare for whatever opportunities the Spirit creates to bear witness to Jesus.
This Spring, we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story, he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. This week, we come to the Consummation of All Things, the great End of the Story: The Restoration of All Things: A New Place, a New People, and the Ever-New Presence of God!
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. This week, we remember the eucatastrophe, the great turn of events that has shaken the world for 2000 years: The RESURRECTION of Jesus.
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. This week we approach the upside-down climax of the story: the CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. How does God restore his blessing to the world? How does he accomplish salvation? How does he restore his Kingdom? Only through the suffering sacrifice of Jesus.
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. This week we come to JESUS, the hero we have been waiting for. He is the exact representation of God, the king we have been waiting for, the true messiah, and the glory we have lost. Jesus leads us to the kingdom of shalom we lost, rescuing us from the empire back to shalom goodness. And Jesus restores to us the presence of God we were created for, rescuing us from sin and isolation back to the presence of God. In Jesus, all that was lost in the fall is redeemed.
This Spring, we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story, he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story and invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission until he returns to make all things new. This week, we're pausing in our series to acknowledge the work that God is doing and to recount stores of his restoration and renewal among the body.
This Spring, we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story, he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story and invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission until he returns to make all things new. This week, we come to the PROPHETS, learning that God is zealously committed to his mission to restore the world, and while he's eager to forgive sin, he will not forever endure the spurring of his glory and the destruction of his world. God's love is fierce and while that means judgment for sin, it also means God's redemptive purposes will always win!
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. Through the period of the Judges and the Kings, God's people keep failing and God continues to be faithful to His promises, in spite of His people's unfaithfulness. A persistent question arises over and over: where is the good King who will establish God's KINGDOM on the earth?
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. We pause in the EXODUS story to see the pattern of The Story of God play itself out in the lives of the Israelites. We also learn that these same movements (creation, shattering, searching, shalom) will play themselves out in all of our lives.
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. In the PROMISE we learn of God's Missionary Heart, his commitment to restore his blessing to the world, and the kind of people he's looking to include in his purposes!
This Spring we are tracing the movements of the Biblical Story, seeking to be formed by God and His Word. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. In the creation of HUMANITY, we learn that a relational God makes a people with whom He can share his glory, include in His work, and enjoy in communion!
Over the next 3 months, we’ll be tracing the movements of the Biblical Story. From the creative glories of Genesis 1-2 to the final restoration of all things in Revelation 21-22, the Bible tells the story of the faithfulness of God as he works to rescue a world in rebellion to his sovereign love. At each stage of the Story he is fashioning a people for himself, a people who can receive his love, carry his presence, and be his means of restoring the world to its former glory. All of this culminates in Jesus, of course, who is the True Hero of the Story, and who invites sinners and sufferers to join his world-restoring mission, until he returns to make all things new. In CREATION we learn that YHWH alone is the Sovereign Lord over all!
Enjoying our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the great privileges in a Christian’s life, and we're taking the month of January to pursue a fresh sense of the Spirit's nearness, comfort, and power. This series was created by three churches: Soma Spokane, All of Life, and Doxa, 3 distinct churches with a shared theological and missional vision. Throughout the series, you’ll hear from the lead elders of each church, offering a fresh and unified perspective on enjoying the work of the Spirit. Our hope is that our collective dependence on the Holy Spirit grows as we raise our expectations, envision what is possible with Him, and more fully anticipate His movement in the year ahead. This week we wrap up our series by looking at the normative operations of the Spirit through Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3.14-21.
Enjoying our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the great privileges in a Christian’s life, and we're taking the month of January to pursue a fresh sense of the Spirit's nearness, comfort, and power. This series was created by three churches: Soma Spokane, All of Life, and Doxa, 3 distinct churches with a shared theological and missional vision. Throughout the series, you’ll hear from the lead elders of each church, offering a fresh and unified perspective on enjoying the work of the Spirit. Our hope is that our collective dependence on the Holy Spirit grows as we raise our expectations, envision what is possible with Him, and more fully anticipate His movement in the year ahead. This week we look at John 20 where Jesus gives the gift of the Holy Spirit and commissions the disciples to be a new Spirit-filled people, sent into the world!
Enjoying our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the great privileges in a Christian’s life, and we're taking the month of January to pursue a fresh sense of the Spirit's nearness, comfort, and power. This series was created by three churches: Soma Spokane, All of Life, and Doxa, 3 distinct churches with a shared theological and missional vision. Throughout the series, you’ll hear from the lead elders of each church, offering a fresh and unified perspective on enjoying the work of the Spirit. Our hope is that our collective dependence on the Holy Spirit grows as we raise our expectations, envision what is possible with Him, and more fully anticipate His movement in the year ahead. This week we look at John 7 where Jesus invites ALL who are thirsty to come to him. He has come to bring the Holy Spirit so that springs of living water will overflow in you as you quench your thirst in Him.
Enjoying our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the great privileges in a Christian’s life, and we're taking the month of January to pursue a fresh sense of the Spirit's nearness, comfort, and power. This series was created by three churches: Soma Spokane, All of Life, and Doxa, 3 distinct churches with a shared theological and missional vision. Throughout the series, you’ll hear from the lead elders of each church, offering a fresh and unified perspective on enjoying the work of the Spirit. Our hope is that our collective dependence on the Holy Spirit grows as we raise our expectations, envision what is possible with Him, and more fully anticipate His movement in the year ahead. This week, when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well outside of town, she's just trying to get her water and mind her own business. But when he speaks to her, Jesus offers something that is so much more valuable: the Living Water of the Spirit of God.
Enjoying our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of the great privileges in a Christian’s life, and we're taking the month of January to pursue a fresh sense of the Spirit's nearness, comfort, and power. This series was created by three churches: Soma Spokane, All of Life, and Doxa, 3 distinct churches with a shared theological and missional vision. Throughout the series, you’ll hear from the lead elders of each church, offering a fresh and unified perspective on enjoying the work of the Spirit. Our hope is that our collective dependence on the Holy Spirit grows as we raise our expectations, envision what is possible with Him, and more fully anticipate His movement in the year ahead. This week we look at John 3, and ask what it looks like to begin and continue our life with Jesus by the work of the Spirit.
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We end our 90 Day Commitment to Pray, Fast, and Give, and our 3-month study in Paul's letter to the church at Philippi by returning to the main theme: Gospel Partnership. Paul's joy in the Philippians is directly connected to their faithfulness to both receiving the gospel and giving themselves to the advance of the gospel. He ends with an encouragement to stay at it, for the long haul. We'll see that becoming a long-term disciple-making and church planting presence requires a deep contentment in Jesus, a shared commitment to his mission, and a trusting conviction in his provision. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
The Bible’s big, life-changing truths meet us in the everyday messiness of life. Paul shows us what it means to live as citizens of heaven — people shaped by Jesus’ reign and values— while dealing with the ordinary struggles of relationships and community. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Paul is going to finish his chapter 3 thought to his beloved friends and family. Please, brothers and sisters, don’t be distracted by the rubbish of the world. But rather, press in to all that Christ has accomplished for you. Let go of all else. It is all trash, “skubala”, in comparison to the greatness of who Christ is and what He has for you. Let go and grab a hold of Him. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
"Rejoice in the Lord" is a command we need to obey, and about which Paul is deadly serious. We lose our joy when we shift our confidence from Christ to our own efforts, forgetting or neglecting all that is ours in Jesus, and that's a deadly shift. A joyful church counts everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus -- But how do we do that today? We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
God has placed his affection on a bunch of nobodies and has declared them to be His cherished possession. The New Testament's picture of the church is a place of mutual honor, where God's people honor and encourage each other regularly. But what do we honor in one another, and how do we become a community of honor? We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Becoming a long-term disciple-making and church planting presence in our region and beyond is no small task, and it requires engagement from every member of the body. In today's text, Paul is urging a deep and ongoing formation in the life of the disciples at Philippi, calling them to work out their salvation in real-world holiness of life. We're looking at the what, why, where, and how of Sanctification, the process of being formed into the character and way of Jesus. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Becoming a long-term disciple-making and church-planting presence will require us to maintain unity. It is no secret that most churches that have been around for long have experienced disunity and division, often resulting in church splits. Even Paul's favorite church -- the Philippians! -- had a growing rift, and in 2:1-11 Paul is trying to get ahead of it. He reminds the church of all they've shared together in Jesus, and calls them fight for unity through the the pursuit of humility. Ultimately, humility is the fruit of seeing and savoring the self-emptying, self-sacrificing, saving love of Jesus! We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Paul has just shown he is “All in” and is now calling the Philippians to life through being all in themselves. His directions for how to be all in are: Together, strive to stand firm in the Spirit, and together, strive to embody a faithful life to the gospel. The world will either reject or embrace Jesus followers, but resistance to this way of life is a gift that gives us more of Jesus Himself. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Our study in Philippians will explore 10 Marks of Long-Term Mission, learning how we can continue to enjoy and share the grace of God for years to come. Paul begins his letter with great joy, gratitude, and affection -- he's remembering how the Philippian church began, and he's celebrating God's work among them and through them. God started a good work among us, God is sustaining that work, and God will bring that work to completion, and this is the grounds for our assurance. As we partner to make disciples, multiply communities, and plant churches in our region and beyond, we, too, need to Start Strong. We need a Sturdy Assurance, a Heartfelt Alliance, and Abounding Affections. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially. Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
Philippians is about gospel partnership, how a local church community can enjoy the grace of God and commit together to take that grace to their neighborhoods and the nations. Partnership -- the Greek word "koinonia" -- means so much more than friendly conversation around a cup of coffee on Sunday morning! It means a risky commitment to Jesus and his Kingdom, and a gritty commitment to one another and our disciple-making mission. As we study Philippians for the next 90 days, we're challenging the whole church to a focused season of Prayer, Fasting, and Generosity in light of our desire to become a long-term disciple-making presence in our region and beyond. We are praying Philippians 4:19 every day at 4:19 pm (follow along in #prayer), fasting for 24 hours each week (as you are able), and giving sacrificially (to increase recurring giving by 25%). Are you in? #gospelcenteredtillwedie
As Soma turns 20, we’re looking back at the ways God has faithfully written our story and leaning forward to all he still wants to do in and through us. God has richly, abundantly, and freely given to us, over and against what we have earned or deserved, and has chosen in his kindness to cause this work to be fruitful -- and we are grateful! Over the month of September we’re looking at a key text — Ephesians 4.1-16 — and asking God to do it again, doing what only he can do as we get low, dependent, and go ALL IN for Jesus and his mission. This week we explore our Shared Maturity, considering the call on each of us and our whole church to grow up in to the fullness of Jesus.
As Soma turns 20, we’re looking back at the ways God has faithfully written our story and leaning forward to all he still wants to do in and through us. God has richly, abundantly, and freely given to us, over and against what we have earned or deserved, and has chosen in his kindness to cause this work to be fruitful -- and we are grateful! Over the month of September, we’re looking at a key text — Ephesians 4.1-16 — and asking God to do it again, doing what only he can do as we get low, dependent, and go ALL IN for Jesus and his mission. This week we explore our Shared Ministry, considering the role of the whole body in growing the church in quality and quantity.
As Soma turns 20, we’re looking back at the ways God has faithfully written our story and leaning forward to all he still wants to do in and through us. God has richly, abundantly, and freely given to us, over and against what we have earned or deserved, and has chosen in his kindness to cause this work to be fruitful -- and we are grateful! Over the month of September we’re looking at a key text — Ephesians 4.1-16 — and asking God to do it again, doing what only he can do as we get low, dependent, and go ALL IN for Jesus and his mission. This week we explore our Shared Calling, asking how we walk worthy of the unique glory of being the church in the nitty-gritty of real community.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus is encouraging his disciples to stay alert and to be faithful in his absence, as none knows the day or time of his return. It is a parable about stewardship, about faithfully taking responsibility for what Jesus has entrusted to us, in anticipation of a joyful reunion when he returns.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus continues the vineyard metaphor to describe the privileged position that God’s people have had among the nations and the evil fruits these wicked tenants have produced. Jesus plainly says the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a people producing its fruits - pointing to a new people and a new kingdom which he is inaugurating!
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a king who throws a wedding feast for his son, but his invitation to the guests is rejected. Not satisfied, the king sends out servants to invite everyone so that the wedding hall is filled. Surprisingly, a man without the proper wedding clothes is kicked out of the party.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus tells his followers a story about a landowner who goes out and hires vineyard workers at different times, paying them all the same denarius for different amounts of work. God's grace evokes something in the 6 AM workers, which reveals what they think about life with God. Jesus ends by reminding us that "the last shall be first and the first shall be last." We all stand on the same grace, and we should view one another through that lens.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus is conversing with Peter about how much a follower should forgive another. In doing so, he tells a parable, a ridiculous parable at that of how much a certain fellow is forgiven by a good master and yet still is mean and unforgiving to a fellow servant. The master then tortures and throws this slave out because the kingdom of heaven requires its participants to be forgiving of others. The parable seems to point at there needing to be more than just an awareness of how much we have been forgiven in order for us to live out the Kingdom of Heaven.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus tells his followers a story of a shepherd leaving 99 sheep to seek and find one lost sheep. He invites his followers into humility and vulnerability of the lifestyle of the sheep. He wants complete dependence, without the air of pride and entitlement.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this week's parable, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a net, gathering fish of every kind from the sea. At the end of the age, the angels will separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.
The Jews were waiting for a physical Kingdom of God to be established in Jerusalem, but that’s not what the Kingdom of God is going to look like in this age. Instead, Jesus says, it’s like a mustard seed quietly planted, or leaven worked into bread. It’s a Kingdom that cannot be seen and that cannot be stopped. A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it’s meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what its meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
A parable is a short story or metaphor, drawn from familiar cultural context and experience, and prompted by Jesus’ need to explain himself and his ministry. Each week this summer we'll explore one of Jesus' parables, asking what it is meant to teach us about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. In this first parable, Jesus gives his disciples the explanation of the parable, drawing attention to Himself as the Sower, the seed as the word of the kingdom, and the differing soils as the variety of ways to hear.
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' manifesto for the life of the Kingdom - what becomes of human communities when they come under the empowering reign of King Jesus. As we end our series on Allegiance, we'll look at the main themes of Jesus' sermon, summarizing what allegiance to him and his way looks like for us. If Jesus is the True King of the World, and our allegiance is to him, then our character, values, priorities, and practices ought to align more and more with all he lays out in this sermon!
Jesus says that John the Baptizer is the final prophet in the line of Elijah, a man of deep Kingdom allegiance and profound moral courage in a day of spiritual decay, and of whom Jesus says “there has arisen no one greater.” Which makes Jesus’ next words all the more shocking: “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” The least in the Kingdom of God — the simplest and humblest of people who knows the Kingly reign of Jesus — has come into a realm of which John could only catch a hazy glimpse!
This week we conclude our series on the life of Elijah, and want to encourage you to have a conversation about how your community will grow and replicate. Since all healthy and living things replicate, a growing community is inevitable, and at some point you’ll need to multiply or send out a few people to start a new community. Even if your community isn’t at that point, it is important for everyone to know that is part of the goal, and to know that it is always costly to create space for others to be wrapped in, built up, and sent out. In addition, consider how you are investing in the kids and/or youth in your community, and what ways you might all disciple them together.
With one short sentence from Jezebel, Elijah runs for his life. He’s gone from the mountain top of spiritual revival on Mt Carmel to the depth of despair, ready to quit. God meets him in the wilderness and provides a snack and a nap, and he’s enabled to carry on. As he arrives at Horeb, he’s still spiritually uncertain and feeling abandoned by God — but God meets him and gives him fresh direction. Elijah is renewed by time away and time in God’s presence. The gospel assures us of God's unfailing love and grace, which sustains us through every trial and empowers us to overcome fear with faith in Him. When we face fear and discouragement we can find comfort and strength in Jesus, who promises to never leave us nor forsake us.
Elijah prays for the rain to come and... nothing happens. But Elijah persists in prayer until a breakthrough comes. Like Daniel in Babylon, or the widow before the unjust judge, there is a persistence and tenacity in his prayer life. We likewise are called to be consistent and tenacious in our prayers, trusting in God's goodness, and recognizing prayer as an act of war. James says Elijah is a man just like us, and we too can approach the Lord in faith, trusting Him for great things.
In this famous story of Elijah's bold challenge to the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, we learn the importance of confronting idolatry and false gods in our lives and society with unwavering faith in the one true God. In particular, we're looking this week at political idolatry, and the ways in which political partisanship has gained our allegiance, deformed our faith, and tarnished our witness. In Elijah's prayer, we see God's true goal: to have the allegiance and affections of our hearts.
In a surprising twist of events, the widow to whom Elijah was sent finds her son near to death, and blames Elijah! Elijah moves in faith and prayer and puts his life on the line to give life to the widow’s son. How can we go to the places where death is currently reigning, and stretch out like Elijah to bring life and wholeness? How does the gospel empower us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God?
Elijah is called out of "Babylon”, but also sent back in, on mission. God sends him to a widow's house, in weakness and vulnerability. As he steps out in faith, God does a miracle. This isn't a one-off, it's a pattern for how God wants us to live. We're sent into Babylon, on mission, in weakness and vulnerability, and it's in this context that God will supply the bread.
Elijah found himself in the middle of one of the worst national apostasies in Israel’s history and yet was determined to be faithful to YHWH. Elijah is willing to be out of step with his cultural moment in order to be faithful to God and the Covenant He’s made with Israel. And that makes him a Trouble Maker (1 Kings 18:17). In this series, we’ll consider 7 Practices that help anchor our allegiance to Jesus and his Kingdom in the midst of our own cultural moment.
Our study in Hebrews comes to a close with an incredible one-sentence summary of the entire book: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever! Over 13 chapters, the author of Hebrews has shown us the sufficiency and uniqueness of Jesus, urging us to leave behind all the substitutes and distractions, and to press on in faith and obedience. In this Easter message, we celebrate all Jesus has done in history, his personal presence with us today, and his future renewal of all things. Because Jesus alone is "yesterday and today and forever," we can trust him completely and worship him unceasingly!
This Palm Sunday, we look at a savior who entered the holy city, only to leave it again. The shouts of the crowds and the bustle of the elite's religion didn't entice Jesus to stick around. Jesus was compelled by a deep compassion for all people, especially the lost. Jesus was constantly finding his way to the margins. He constantly drifted toward the outsiders on the edges of society. Hebrews 13 tells us that he "suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through his own blood." Likewise, we should go to him outside the camp, bear the reproach he endured, and there find our hearts encouraged by his grace.
Hebrews 11 is a long list of biblical figures who “by faith” conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, quenched the power of fire, and were tortured unto death. They were made strong out of weakness, because of the one in whom they placed their faith. Hebrews 12 turns the corner and says “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Chapter 12 is a call to keep our eyes on Jesus, keep our faith in Jesus, and repent of our desire to quit and drop out of the race. We all face hardships, we all struggle with sin, we’re all disciplined by the Lord for our good, and as a result, we’ll all be tempted to quit at some point along the way. The challenge of Hebrews 12 is to repent of that desire to quit: “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,” consider Jesus and the opposition he faced, consider the great cloud of witnesses around him, and carry on in God’s strength.
Hebrews 8-10 is a rich exposition of the supremacy of Jesus and his sacrifice over the sacrificial system and high priests of Judaism. The old system was a mixed bag: God gave his people a way to deal with the sin problem, but it actually served to continuously remind them of the sin problem. It was simply insufficient, unable to really cleanse the conscience of the worshipper, and sin's guilty weight remained. But Jesus, by means of his self-offering, has done perfectly and in reality what the priests could only do imperfectly and figuratively. By offering himself as a perfect sacrifice, through the shedding of his own sinless blood, Jesus removed sin's weight and condemnation, and opened full, free, and unfettered access to God! Therefore, we can draw near to God with assurance and we can stir one another to love and good deeds.
Hebrews 5-7 contains one of the strongest warnings in the entire New Testament, a text that has been a cause of anxious concern for disciples across the ages. On one hand, the authors are befuddled at the ongoing immaturity of the church, and are challenging the seeming passivity: They are like nursing infants when they should be mature adults helping to feed others. On the other hand, they know this church is capable of love, service, and persevering faith. The call is to grow up, becoming a people solidly grounded in the basics of faith and fully equipped for everyday lives of service and ministry. In the middle, the authors warn that what starts as a refusal to grow up can become an inability to grow up, where our hearts become hard and we sever ties with Jesus altogether. There's only one solution: Go forward, in faith and patience, having the full assurance of hope in Jesus!
The unknown author of Hebrews has a 2-fold purpose in this profound letter: To wake us from spiritual slumber and to compel us to see the all-sufficiency of Jesus. Built around 6 strong warning texts, Hebrews is designed to call the reader to wake up, pay attention to their spiritual state, and turn from anything and everything that is clouding their vision and numbing their experience of the all-sufficiency of Jesus. Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us that the Word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword, cutting to the deepest places within us, performing surgery in the human heart - but only if we let it. Hence, the resounding warning of these chapters is “do not harden your hearts” as the Israelites did in the wilderness. Whenever conviction comes, through God’s Spirit and God’s word, we have a choice to make: will we repent in soft-heartedness and receive the truth, or will we harden our hearts and persist in our sin?
The unknown author of Hebrews has a 2-fold purpose in this profound letter: To wake us from spiritual slumber and to compel us to see the all-sufficiency of Jesus. Built around 6 strong warning texts, Hebrews is designed to call the reader to wake up, pay attention to their spiritual state, and turn from anything and everything that is clouding their vision and numbing their experience of the all-sufficiency of Jesus. In 2:1 we get our first warning — pay attention, lest we drift! — and the author paints a vivid picture of the way we naturally go off-course in following Jesus. Lent is about seeing and naming that drift and making a decision to move the other way. Thankfully, Jesus is eager to help us as we cry out to him in repentance! In repentance, we turn from our distractions and renew our attention and affections in all Jesus is and all he's done for us.
It feels almost impossible to believe: Jesus says it is better for us to have the Holy Spirit with us than for us to have Jesus himself with us. The arrival of the Helper, the Holy Spirit, is a magnificent upgrade to Jesus' mission and ministry! In the Spirit, every single disciple of Jesus across time and space has direct access to the same presence and power of God that Jesus himself enjoyed. If that is true, then knowing and trusting the Spirit ought to be one of our highest priorities as disciples. This Sunday, we wrap up our series on the Promise of the Spirit, looking at how the Spirit comes as our Guide, personally directing each of us and all of us as a church family on mission. We'll celebrate the coming together of River's Edge and Soma Spokane into one body, tell the story of how the Spirit guided us into this partnership, and collectively ask the Spirit to continue to lead us as we live as brothers and sisters on mission in the things to come.
In the Upper Room, as Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure, the anxiety grew and the fear was likely palpable. What would it be like without Him right in front of them? How would they make it in an antagonistic world without Him as a compass? Jesus assured them that it would be better for them after he departed. The Helper (The Ghost) would arrive! This wouldn’t only be to the advantage of the disciples, the Spirit's arrival would be better for the world. The Spirit will correct the church about right living regarding justice, and then through a corrected Church, He will bring right living and justice to a world ruled by evil forces. The Spirit corrects and empowers the Church!
Depending on your church background, there are a lot of misguided notions about the third member of the Godhead. Thankfully, Jesus is really clear and spends quite a bit of time explaining to his disciples what exactly they ought to expect when he sends the Spirit. In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and for their role in carrying on his mission and ministry. They’re afraid and uncertain, and the promise of Jesus' ongoing presence with them by the Spirit is his solution to their worry! There’s a wealth of resources in the Holy Spirit, and in this series, we'll explore all Jesus' promises to give us when the Spirit dwells in us. This week we look at Jesus' promise to empower us by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Jesus.
Depending on your church background, there are a lot of misguided notions about the third member of the Godhead. Thankfully, Jesus is really clear and spends quite a bit of time explaining to his disciples what exactly they ought to expect when he sends the Spirit. In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and for their role in carrying on his mission and ministry. They’re afraid and uncertain, and the promise of Jesus' ongoing presence with them by the Spirit is his solution to their worry! There’s a wealth of resources in the Holy Spirit, and in this series, we'll explore all Jesus' promises to us when the Spirit dwells in us. This week we look at how the Spirit works in union with the word of God - calling us to remember God's word, reinforcing what is true, and empowering our life in Christ.
Depending on your church background, there are a lot of misguided notions about the third member of the Godhead. Thankfully, Jesus is really clear and spends quite a bit of time explaining to his disciples what exactly they ought to expect when he sends the Spirit. In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and for their role in carrying on his mission and ministry. They’re afraid and uncertain, and the promise of Jesus' ongoing presence with them by the Spirit is his solution to their worry! There’s a wealth of resources in the Holy Spirit, and in this series, we'll explore all Jesus' promises to us when the Spirit dwells in us. This week we look at Jesus’ promise to not leave us orphaned, and the Spirit’s role in bringing every disciple a deeper sense of God’s loving presence.
Depending on your church background, there are a lot of misguided notions about the third member of the Godhead. Thankfully, Jesus is really clear and spends quite a bit of time explaining to his disciples what exactly they ought to expect when he sends the Spirit. In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and for their role in carrying on his mission and ministry. They’re afraid and uncertain, and the promise of Jesus' ongoing presence with them by the Spirit is his solution to their worry! There’s a wealth of resources in the Holy Spirit, and in this series, we'll explore all Jesus' promises to us when the Spirit dwells in us. This week we look at the context of these promises and begin asking Jesus to give us the fullness of His Spirit.
In the days of Jesus’ life, people came to know him from the ground-up — they walked with him, watched and listened to him, experienced his reality, and in real time came to know him as Savior and Lord. After his death and resurrection, as the first disciples reflected on all he was and all he did, they came to know Jesus from the heavens-down, comprehending his deity and his descent to humanity. In this series, we’ll unpack four of the New Testament’s most exalted claims regarding the deity of Jesus, marveling at the humility of his descent in his first Advent. This week we look at John 1.1-18, wrapping up our series by asking, "What difference does Advent make?"
In the days of Jesus’ life, people came to know him from the ground-up — they walked with him, watched and listened to him, experienced his reality, and in real-time came to know him as Savior and Lord. After his death and resurrection, as the first disciples reflected back on all he was and all he did, they came to know Jesus from the heavens-down, comprehending his deity and his descent to humanity. In this series, we’ll unpack four of the New Testament’s most exalted claims regarding the deity of Jesus, marveling at the humility of his descent in his first Advent. This week we look at Philippians 2:5-11 and see how Jesus did not hold onto his equality with God for his own advantage, but humbled himself, to serve us and sacrifice himself so humanity could draw near to God!
In the days of Jesus’ life, people came to know him from the ground-up — they walked with him, watched and listened to him, experienced his reality, and in real-time came to know him as Savior and Lord. After his death and resurrection, as the first disciples reflected back on all he was and all he did, they came to know Jesus from the heavens-down, comprehending his deity and his descent to humanity. In this series, we’ll unpack four of the New Testament’s most exalted claims regarding the deity of Jesus, marveling at the humility of his descent in his first Advent. This week we look at Colossians 1:15-20 and see the preeminence of Christ - his surpassing worth - in all things!
In the days of Jesus’ life, people came to know him from the ground-up — they walked with him, watched and listened to him, experienced his reality, and in real-time came to know him as Savior and Lord. After his death and resurrection, as the first disciples reflected back on all he was and all he did, they came to know Jesus from the heavens-down, comprehending his deity and his descent to humanity. In this series, we’ll unpack four of the New Testament’s most exalted claims regarding the deity of Jesus, marveling at the humility of his descent in his first Advent. This week we look at Hebrews 1:1-4, and see Jesus as God’s exclusive, inclusive, and intrusive self-revelation.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we unpack the final statement - God's eagerness to forgive paired with his commitment to justice - and feel the tension at the heart of the biblical narrative.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we'll spend time thinking about how God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we look at what it means for God to be slow to anger, that his anger is both warranted and restrained.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like, and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we look at what it means for God to be gracious, his action of coming to rescue the undeserving and ill-deserving.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like, and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously, and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we look at God's Mercy, his baseline emotion toward our frailty, weakness, and brokenness, asking what it means to trust him as our compassionate Father.
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like, and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously, and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. Show Us Your Glory!
In September our Soma family turns 19, and as we do most years we’ll spend the month revisiting the core priorities and key practices that have shaped us into who we are. Our mission statement names our core priorities: Forming whole-hearted disciples of Jesus, in life-shaping relationship, for everyday disciple-making. We use 4 simple practices — Gather, Go, Grow, Give — to help make the mission actionable by every member of the body, calling us out of alternative narratives and allegiances, to give ourselves unreservedly to Jesus, His Way, and His mission. Our desire is that you’d name 1-2 key habits for each category, and then we will commit ourselves to them for the coming year, linking arms to stay on mission together. This week we remember our story, commit our lives, and celebrate!
In September our Soma family turns 19, and as we do most years we’ll spend the month revisiting the core priorities and key practices that have shaped us into who we are. Our mission statement names our core priorities: Forming whole-hearted disciples of Jesus, in life-shaping relationship, for everyday disciple-making. Over the course of September, we’ll dig into each piece of that mission by studying Colossians 3-4. In addition, we use 4 simple practices — Gather, Go, Grow, Give — to help make the mission actionable by every member of the body. Our desire is that you’d name 1-2 key habits for each category, and then commit yourself to practice them over the coming year as a way to link arms and stay on mission together. This week we look at how we can wrap our everyday lives into the mission of Jesus through prayer, witness, and finding your role in the local church.
n September our Soma family turns 19, and as we do most years we’ll spend the month revisiting the core priorities and key practices that have shaped us into who we are. Our mission statement names our core priorities: Forming whole-hearted disciples of Jesus, in life-shaping relationship, for everyday disciple-making mission. Over the course of September, we’ll dig into each piece of that mission by studying Colossians 3-4. In addition, we use 4 simple practices — Gather, Go, Grow, Give — to help make the mission actionable by every member of the body. Our desire is that you’d name 1-2 key habits for each category, and then commit yourself to practice them over the coming year as a way to link arms and stay on mission together. This week we look at the necessity, power, and purpose of life in community.
In September our Soma family turns 19, and as we do most years we’ll spend the month revisiting the core priorities and key practices that have shaped us into who we are. Our mission statement names our core priorities: Forming whole-hearted disciples of Jesus, in life-shaping relationship, for everyday disciple-making mission. Over the course of September, we’ll dig into each piece of that mission by studying Colossians 3-4. In addition, we use 4 simple practices — Gather, Go, Grow, Give — to help make the mission actionable by every member of the body. Our desire is that you’d name 1-2 key habits for each category, and then commit yourself to practice them over the coming year as a way to link arms and stay on mission together. This week we look at how whole-hearted disciples of Jesus are formed.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at prayer in Revelation.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at a prayer for the Church in Acts.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at Nehemiah’s prayer.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at Daniel's prayer of confession in Daniel 9 which teaches us to seek God with our whole heart, with our Bible open, in humble confession, according to God's promises.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at Habakkuk's prayer for the church from Habakkuk 3, teaching us to contend for joy in the Lord in the midst of suffering.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allows prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc.) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we look at Solomon's prayer for the church from 1 Kings 3:1-15.
We want to become a praying church. A people who allow prayer to be the power of what we do together, who pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, who seek intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. To that end, we’re looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we’ll look at Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel 2:1-10.
One of our priorities over the last few years has been to move from being “a church that prays” to being “a praying church.” We want prayer — turning to God in praise, dependence, confession, and supplication — to be the power of what we do together. We want to pray Scripture-fed and Spirit-led prayers, seeking intimacy with God that leads to fulfillment of his purposes in us, through us, and around us. We want to seek his face, cultivate his presence, and position ourselves to meet with him. “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” To that end, we’re taking 8 Sundays this Summer (July 16 - September 2) and looking at biblical prayers from all across the Storyline of Scripture. Each week we’ll look at the context (understand where we are in the story and how that shapes the pray-er and his/her prayer), the content (what is emphasized, requested, described, etc) of the prayer, and the connections (how we can or should use each prayer as a model for our own engagement with God). We’ll practice praying together each week, using the prayer as a model. This week we’ll look at Paul’s prayer for the church from Ephesians 3:14-21.
This series is all about what it means to fulfill Jesus' Promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 1 Peter 3.13-18 tells us to Bear Witness includes 3 things: Deep allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom, clear readiness to suffer for Jesus' sake, and a commitment to live good lives - with personal integrity, in committed community, and in service to the world. As we do that, Peter says, we'll have opportunity to respond to those who ask for a reason for the hope that is in us. In the final part of our series, we're giving reasons for hope by looking at the Storyline of the Bible - Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, and Restoration. Each movement propels hope-filled living and gives us intellectually stimulating, emotionally satisfying, and consistently livable answers to life's biggest questions. This week we explore the doctrine of Restoration: God will return to dwell among us as he did in Eden, remaking the world as it was meant to be, eradicating evil and sin, and making all things new!
This series is all about what it means to fulfill Jesus' Promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 1 Peter 3.13-18 tells us to Bear Witness includes 3 things: Deep allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom, clear readiness to suffer for Jesus' sake, and a commitment to live good lives - with personal integrity, in committed community, and in service to the world. As we do that, Peter says, we'll have opportunity to respond to those who ask for a reason for the hope that is in us. In the final part of our series, we're giving reasons for hope by looking at the Storyline of the Bible - Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, and Restoration. Each movement propels hope-filled living and gives us intellectually stimulating, emotionally satisfying, and consistently livable answers to life's biggest questions. This week we explore the doctrine of Redemption: putting everything right through Jesus, restoring what has been marred and destroyed in all of creation's rebellion against God.
This series is all about what it means to fulfill Jesus' Promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 1 Peter 3.13-18 tells us to Bear Witness includes 3 things: Deep allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom, clear readiness to suffer for Jesus' sake, and a commitment to live good lives - with personal integrity, in committed community, and in service to the world. As we do that, Peter says, we'll have opportunity to respond to those who ask for a reason for the hope that is in us. In the final part of our series, we're giving reasons for hope by looking at the Storyline of the Bible - Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, and Restoration. Each movement propels hope-filled living and gives us intellectually stimulating, emotionally satisfying, and consistently livable answers to life's biggest questions. This week we explore the doctrine of Rebellion: We are alienated from God and living in a world that is unravelling from God's original intent.
This series is all about what it means to fulfill Jesus' Promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 1 Peter 3.13-18 tells us to Bear Witness includes 3 things: Deep allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom, clear readiness to suffer for Jesus' sake, and a commitment to live good lives - with personal integrity, in committed community, and in service to the world. As we do that, Peter says, we'll have opportunity to respond to those who ask for a reason for the hope that is in us. In the final part of our series, we're giving reasons for hope by looking at the Storyline of the Bible - Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, and Restoration. Each movement propels hope-filled living and gives us intellectually stimulating, emotionally satisfying, and consistently livable answers to life's biggest questions. This week we explore the doctrine of Creation: We live in a God-breathed and God-sustained world, amongst people made in God's image, built to depend on and center our lives on God.
Peter’s vision is actually really down to earth: commit yourself to doing good in the world, and be ready to speak of the hope you have when the moment comes. There’s no door-knocking or weird sales pitches. There’s faithfulness to Jesus that shows itself in the kind of life that demands an explanation. And when that moment comes, we answer with gentleness and respect, even when people revile us. Practically, this means being “zealous for good deeds” — to live as citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom for the sake of the world — with an eager readiness to give a reason for your hope. What kind of lives might lead our neighbors to ask “why?” And what will be our answer when they do?
The expectation of the early church was that allegiance to Jesus would mean suffering. It wasn’t a matter of “if” but of “when” and “how”. For many, it was the rejection or ridicule of family, friends, and neighbors. For others, it was official persecution, suffering, and death. Peter says, don’t see it as “something strange” (4.13) but to “rejoice” because you suffer with Christ! We’re to suffer as we commit ourselves to living good lives, suffering not because we’re meddlers but because we’re disciples of Jesus. God is at work in our suffering, as he conforms us to the image of Christ and prepares us to share in the glory of Christ.
We’re launching a new series this Sunday entitled “Bearing Witness,” and we’ll be spending 7 weeks in 1 Peter 3.13-18. Peter gives us a “mission for normal folks” in these verses. This isn’t Paul in Acts traveling city to city and causing riots; this is everyday folks, living in neighborhoods, raising their families, working their jobs, and being faithful witnesses for Jesus. They aren’t knocking on doors, trying awkwardly to drop “Jesus” into every conversation, or donning some witness-wear. They’re people energized by the Spirit and the Good News, zealously committed to doing what is good, right, and true, even when it is costly. They’ve given their whole-hearted allegiance to Jesus and his Kingdom, and have abandoned hopes in the Empire. They are living the kind of lives that make their neighbors ask questions, into which they are eager and ready to speak of their Hope in Jesus. They hold their deep convictions and speak of them with gentleness and respect. In all things, Jesus is not only their message but also their means — he suffered for sin and for sinners, especially us. It is going to be a great series!
This Mother's Day, we'll share stories of motherhood and the sufficiency of Jesus. We’ve got a handful of mommas who are sharing their mess and challenge, revealing their need for Jesus, and talking about how He has met them in the journey. This won’t be perfect moms sharing their tips for being better moms; this will be real moms sharing their real need for a Real Savior, and all the ways that Real Savior has been gracious, present, and empowering through the good, bad, and ugly of mom life. Regardless of your experience, you'll be encouraged to hear what Jesus can and is doing among us!
We're ending our series in Luke's Gospel by looking at the first chapters of Acts, which is the continuation of Luke's telling of the Jesus Story. In Acts 1 Jesus promises to send the Spirit to empower his disciples to be his witnesses. In Acts 2, the Spirit arrives, the church is born, and the mission of Jesus continues in and through his people. From the very beginning, the church is marked by Spirit-wrought unity, Jesus-centered humility, and Family-like community. This week, Rodney McAuley joins us to talk about his ministry of racial justice and reconciliation in the church.
In Acts, Luke continues the narrative of the work of Jesus. The tomb is empty, Jesus is alive, and as he ascends to his throne in heaven, he gives clear direction about how his followers are to continue his work. His ongoing mission in the world depends on this community of failures. Everything Jesus came to do is now being entrusted to his Church. But, here’s the catch, the disciples can’t seem to get it right. They don’t have what it takes. They are confused, scared, and prone to give up easily. We are sent to bear witness to the Story - his life, death, resurrection; the forgiveness of sins; repentance and baptism; a new kind of human life together - but we can’t make it very far past the resurrection before we start flopping again; missing what Jesus is really saying. This is why the work of the Holy Spirit is so important. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will empower them (and us!) to live out the mission. All they are to do is wait, expect, pray, and depend. Not on their own strength, but on the power of God!
The gospel according to Luke ends with the Risen King Jesus showing up among his perplexed, fearful, and anxious community of disciples. In Acts - which is Luke's Volume 2 of the Jesus Story! - Luke tells us Jesus spent 40 days with this community, teaching them about the Kingdom of God. In this week's text we get a sample of what Jesus taught. First, he wanted them to know him in all his resurrection glory, and to trust his work on their behalf. Second, he wanted them to understand what he had accomplished and made possible. Third, he wanted to prepare them to be his witnesses, proclaiming and demonstrating the Good News to the ends of the earth. And finally, he wanted to know the power of the Spirit who would accomplish all of this through them. All of this sets up the movement of the gospel that unfolds in the book of Acts, eventually reaching all the way to us!
"He is not here, but has risen." With those words, the world shifts. Jesus is the center of history, and his resurrection is the hinge point. Yet, when the angels announce the resurrection, nobody understands it, and nobody believes it! But by the end of the story, the whole community of disciples is saying together, "He is risen, indeed!" That’s what Easter is all about: The facts of the resurrection (He is Risen!) become the energizing reality of a disciple’s life (He is Risen, Indeed!). The facts tell us why we can believe it, and the second tells us why we should!
None of the Gospel writers spend much time describing the actual crucifixion of Jesus. There are very few gory details, though crucifixion was brutal, shameful, and excruciating. Two details almost all the writers include are the darkening of the day and the tearing of the temple curtain. Both carry a great deal of theological weight, helping us to understand exactly what is happening in the final moments before Jesus lets go of his life. The darkness symbolizes that God's judgement against evil is falling on Jesus - the great and terrible day of the Lord has come, but to God's Son and not to us. The torn curtain symbolizes the end of all that has separated us from God and opening of access to his presence - we are no longer separated from God, but welcomed to draw near.
As Jesus appears before the last person who can spare him from being tormented on the cross, he refuses to plead for his life. Why? Because he WANTS to go to the cross. And when they nail him to the beam and hang him up to die, and they hurl insults at him, he holds no grudge. Instead he prays "Father, forgive them." The sins of mankind (including yours and mine) meant that the cross was necessary - so while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The story of Judas' betrayal is infamous: One of Jesus' closes companions conspires with the Religious power brokers to destroy Jesus, working in conjunction with Satan himself. For Judas, Jesus was a means to an end, and in this moment he sells Jesus out for a bit of cash. Loyalty, the opposite of betrayal, is being true to someone despite attractive alternatives. While it is easy to point fingers at Judas, the story is meant to lead us to reflect on our own attractive alternatives and the places for which Jesus is a means to an end in our own lives. And yet - thru the very means of Judas' betrayal! - Jesus displays his self-giving loyalty, giving his body and blood for us, accomplishing redemption on our behalf.
We throw the word glory around but really, what does it mean? A glow, a radiance, or the Holiness of God? We may typically think of being in awe while looking at His image. The Bible seems to give a much fuller picture of the glory of God. One of his character, His benevolent rule, and of the goodness and blessing He spreads. And on top of a fuller picture, the Bible again and again gives examples of Him sharing His glory with man as He commissions us to go and spread his reweaving, shalomic glory across mankind. As we spend our days aching alongside all of creation and working towards the blessing of the earth, we eagerly look towards the day that Jesus, the author of Glory returns and makes all things right and new.
In ch. 20, Luke gives us 6 stories illustrating the rising tension between Jesus and his religious enemies. At the center of the debate is the authority of Jesus -- who he is and how he can claim to speak and act in the name of God. This is the central question of the gospels and the whole reason Luke has written: What will we do with Jesus? Resistance to Jesus' authority isn't a 1st Century problem but a universal problem, rooted in hearts that resist submission to anyone. In this season of Lent, we're invited to consider ways we still resist Jesus and his reign in our lives, believing that greater joy can be found outside of his lordship over our lives.
As Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem, he deliberately fulfills Zechariah's prophecy regarding God's anointed King arriving on a colt. His disciples rejoice and the religious leaders grumble (again). But Jesus? He weeps. The tears of the King. What makes the Lord weep is human hard-heartedness, the refusal to welcome Jesus and his reign of grace into our broken hearts, broken lives, and broken world. Thankfully, our rejection of Jesus doesn't lead to his rejection of us - he continues his mission by entering the Temple to make a way for sinners to come in! As we begin our journey in Lent, we're asking the Spirit of Jesus to search us, reveal our blind hard-heartedness, and lead us to fullness of joy in his determination to give himself in love for the world.
When Jesus said in Luke 18 that "no one is good except God alone", he meant it! But for all of human history, people like the Pharisees and the Rich Ruler (and you and me!) have tried to find peace with God through their own good deeds and self-righteous acts. While the world applauds those who "try harder and do better", the truth is that self-righteousness is just another way of rejecting Jesus and denying his finished work on our behalf. How can we be freed from this insidious self-sabotage? Like Jesus said, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
Jesus calls us and saves us personally as individuals, but his aim is to form a new kind of community built on faith in His mercy. In Luke 17.1-10, he describes a handful of key aspects of his community, offering a vision for life together as disciples. The community of Jesus is not immune from sin, so it requires a sober self-awareness and an eagerness to confess sin and find forgiveness. It also requires an abundance of mercy, as we live together under Jesus' mercy. We also need a ton of humility, learning to do what Jesus has asked - love one another! - with a healthy level of self-forgetfulness. Living this way requires a great deal of faith, which means returning to Jesus again and again, laying ourselves at his feet, and receiving again his mercy to us.
In our parable of the gracious and giving land owner and the manager who finds grace, there are two primary characters. One is the gracious and generous landowner who holds the kingdom. The other is the manager who is found out to be wasting and stealing the resources of the master. The manager is about to be kicked out but instead makes a move that trusts all in the character and honor of the generous gracious master. It puts the good master’s character on display and the scoundrel manager is welcomed back because of the lavish graciousness and generosity of the good master.
Do you ever feel like you’re on the outside? Like you just don’t fit the religious mold? Or perhaps you’re quite comfortable in the church. What you’re concerned about is the culture, the economy, politics. Wherever you are Jesus wants to show you how to approach him. Whether you feel like you’re on the outside or the inside, like the younger or older brother, God has something profound he wants to give you today - Himself!
As Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem, he is shaping in his disciples a true vision of the Kingdom of God and how to live in it now. One of the biblical images for the Kingdom of God was the Feast, and Jesus tells a parable about who will be wanted and welcomed at the feast. Shockingly, those who are invited to the feast reject it, and the master of the Feast sends his Servant to collect the busted and broken, compelling even those outside the city to come to the Feast. This is the ministry of Jesus, a wide-open invitation to the least and the lowest to draw near. At the same time, Jesus tells those who are coming after him to be sure they know what they’re getting into, because while becoming a disciple of Jesus is totally free, it will cost you everything! Only those who are able to count the cost are ready to become his disciples. Christianity is both a wide-open invitation of grace and a line-in-the-sand call to death — and both are good news!
As Jesus travels to Jerusalem, with a clear vision of what the next part of his mission is, his confrontation with the religious elites increases. He frequently comes toe-to-toe with them, maneuvering through their traps with wisdom, calling out their hypocrisy with boldness, and avoiding their distractions with clarity. The Gospel of Luke uses the word “repent” nine times, and all of those times are in this travel narrative, while Jesus’ focus is on Jerusalem. The pride, arrogance, exclusivity, and entitlement of the religious warrants God’s judgment. Although Jesus would rather accept and welcome Jerusalem and her leaders - as a hen cares for her chicks - he can not. He can not turn a blind eye toward their relentless sin while they cling to their assumption that they are good with God. They are not! And in this section, Jesus calls them to repentance and weeps because he knows they will ultimately reject his offer. Repentance shows up as a warning (to those that may reject it), but to those that receive it, it is a gift!
In Part 3 of our study in the Gospel according to Luke, we're going to explore a handful of key practices that help us live into the Way of Jesus. Jesus is intent on forming his way of thinking, believing, and living into those who follow him, expecting that everyone who wants to be his disciple must "take up their cross daily" and learn from him how to live the upside down nature of life in his kingdom. In chapters 12-18, Jesus is training his disciples in his Way, confronting, challenging, and comforting them as he does. This week we look at Jesus' teaching on greed and how to live free of anxious striving or boastful amassing. Our relationship to money and possessions has everything to do with who we are and whose we are: Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom!
We wrap up our three-part Advent series this week with the arrival of Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem. In chapter 1 of Luke, we saw God come near to Elizabeth & Zechariah with generosity. In their barrenness, God came to the unable. Last week, we looked at Mary’s story and saw that God came to the unexpectant and invited partnership. This week, in Luke 2, we’ll see how God came to the undeserving. A group of lowly shepherds gets in on the marvelous news of Jesus’ birth. These unseen vagabonds, these outcasts of society, are seen by God and experience undeserved equality! These rejects are the ones who get to experience previously unseen wonders as the heavens are opened up and a choir of heavenly hosts proclaims God’s glory. The people that were always on the outside are some of the first to meet Jesus, as he lay in a manger. The community of the manger is the fellowship of rejects, and it is not just his birth that is set in the margins. Jesus spends his life among the least of all people, among the sinners, the sick, and the disgraced. Jesus’ entire mission is wrapped up in seeking and saving the lost and having compassion for the poor. Jesus embodies God’s heart for the poor. It is clear, throughout all of scripture, that God cares deeply for the poor and the marginalized. God has always been, and continues to be, a rescuer of the needy. Jesus’ birth was a beautiful act of justice and equality, not just for the shepherds but for the entire world. Even in his death, Jesus was serving those who had no means. Through his death and resurrection, he provides a way for the rejects and outcasts to be seen and welcomed into previously unavailable glory.
This is the story of Advent.
JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and their friends coined the phrase, “Jesus is the true myth”. He is the better, truer story. He is the author of all other stories. Whether we recognize his penmanship or not, he is carefully crafting a far better narrative than we could ever come up with on our own. That is why he chooses to disrupt the story of humanity. In our text this week, we see God surprisingly visit Mary and completely change her plans. Any hope she had for life to move in a certain direction would be completely altered because of Gabriel’s announcement. Although she was a virgin, she would become pregnant with the Son of God. He would be great, would bring peace to the world, would assume the throne of David, and rule forever. Oh, the possibilities! The life-changing declaration and miracle! This interruption brought with it the unexpected, but deeply longed-for, salvation of the world. And on top of all that, God would choose to partner with humanity to unfold this new story. God put on flesh as a desperately needy human baby and partnered with young Mary to rewrite the course of human history. Likewise, God interrupts our lives, offering amazing possibilities, and commits himself to partner with us.
This is the story of Advent.
The Old Testament ends in a dramatic sunset, followed by a dark 400-year night, kept alive with a theological pulse of expectation - will the sun rise again on God’s people? Where we pick up the story, in the first chapter of Luke, is during that dark moment before the sun comes. That hour often feels like the coldest, darkest, point of the night. During that darkness, there is simply no indication that God is worried about their plight. God’s people are in despair and hopelessness. Most of them are attempting to birth something new in their own power and through their own means. So it is fitting that Luke starts with the longing of Zechariah and Elizabeth and their painful contractions of hope. Like Abraham and Sarah in the Torah, these two were living in barrenness, hoping for new life but getting nothing. Barrenness was the inability to create life and goodness on our own. They lived in despair knowing that nothing truly new can happen in their life. They knew that if something was going to happen it would either be because they figured it out alone, or God opened up the impossible. What is required for the genuinely new to come into life? An act of creation! God enters, speaks assurance and truth, and generously creates a whole new world of possibilities! God’s generosity creates new life where there was barrenness and despair! And don't get it twisted, the sunrise of hope and new possibilities isn't the birth of John, it is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
This is the story of Advent.
The world is broken, frayed at the edges — but the King has come, Anointed by Spirit, with healing in his hands! In his life and ministry, Jesus gathers up all this old, sin-tarnished, shame-tattered, sick and dying world in arms, eventually bearing it all in his body on the cross. He takes it all into the grave with him, walking out 3 days later, alive and new, and pulling the world through with him! And he’s gathering a Family — those who’ve heard the news of restoration and are experiencing its in-breaking, who sit and listen and receive his mission and ministry, who cease their anxious striving and put trust in him and his work. And it is that very Family who then respond as he calls them to follow him and his way, participating in the ministry of Restoration. Jesus calls us to join him in the world as Missionaries, proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom in the power of the Spirit, and as Neighbors, moving with compassionate care toward the frayed edges of the social fabric.
Every character in Luke 9 seems to have the same basic question: who exactly is Jesus? Is he a revolutionary? Is he the Messiah? A circus act? A reincarnation of Moses or Elijah? But when heaven breaks open and the answer is given, his disciples must reckon with Jesus being much more than they imagined... and much more demanding of them. But they will discover that there is more for them as they go deeper in Christ, and he's inviting his disciples into more NOT so they can do more but so they can receive more.
The further we go in Luke, the more we see Jesus inviting people in: He is preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom of God, but ultimately he’s looking for people who will really hear him and join him. He isn’t interested in large crowds. He doesn’t want to just upend religion and question the status quo. He wants to build a family — a spiritual family of brothers and sisters — who will be with him and do the work of preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom with him. Jesus has come to reweave the fabric of Shalom, and as individuals experience him, his ministry, and his message, they become participants with him in the work. To be a part of Jesus’ family means we not only listen and receive from him, but that we also get involved and do the work alongside him.
Luke continues his message of crystallizing the kingdom and here he gives some great pictures of those who get the blessing and those who miss out. The key to God’s kingdom has always been faith. I believe who God says He is and that He is going to accomplish the redemptive restoration that He said He would. The opposite of faith is to be offended and make ourselves autonomous from the need for God and a savior. Luke paints this picture well in chapter 7.
Jesus came to fulfill the law and reconstitute Israel. He did this by perfectly obeying the law, pushing up against the extra legalistic weight of their rules, and restoring the spirit behind the letter of the law. Jesus also came to bring peace and life to humanity. He did this by perfectly entering into humanity's suffering, pushing against the rules that keep us bound, and restoring life. In this chapter, we see Jesus restore a man with a withered hand and recognize that this compassionate act was much more than physical healing, it was an act of cosmic restoration. Jesus came to restore and claims that everyone who comes to him, hears his words, and does them will flourish.
Jesus is a conundrum: He simply doesn’t fit our preconceived ideas. In Luke 5, we see 4 vignettes of Jesus’ engagement with people, and through them we see the multifaceted ministry of Jesus. In Jesus, salvation is personal, disrupting our sense of self and rearranging our priorities in life. Salvation is also communal, as it restores us to community, connection, and relationship. Salvation is also vertical, dealing with our sin problem and restoring us to God. And finally, Salvation is outward, always moving through us to the networks and neighborhoods within which we have favor. Jesus does extraordinary things, and when we encounter him absolutely nothing can stay the same!
After 40 days in the wilderness doing battle with the devil, Jesus launches his public ministry. He takes Isaiah 61 as his personal mission statement — “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” — a remarkable passage to claim as his own! But when Jesus begins to explain what he means by it — that he’s come to bring God’s kingdom to outsiders, religious failures, and spiritual lepers — the whole synagogue of church folks are filled with wrath and attempt to toss him off a cliff. But Jesus has come to bring the kingdom of God to the least, last, and lowest, and he will not be deterred. He passes through the angry mob and gets right to work healing the sick, freeing the captives, and proclaiming the good news of God’s grace. It's an explosive start!
The goal of Luke's Gospel is to give us Jesus - the real deal, in all his goodness, might, and humility. In response, we say: “Jesus, you are the only hope of the world — you are my only hope. I admit my share in the responsibility for the world as it is. Forgive my injustice. Burn out my idolatrous self-reliance. Make me whole. Make me new. You alone are my salvation, and I give my entire allegiance to you.”
Our desire is to continue year after year to return to the key aspects of following Jesus with an intention to wrap our heads, hearts, and lives around him and his work in the world. 1 Peter is written to “elect exiles,” disciples of Jesus who are scattered all around the Roman Empire, trying to figure out how to follow Jesus in a world radically opposed to Him and His way. He writes to remind them of the Story they are in and the work God has done for them, and to call them to live with a whole-life allegiance to Jesus and His Kingdom.
Almost every September we do a short series together on Sundays and in our Communities around our Core Priorities: Gospel Formation, Life in Community, and Everyday Mission. Our desire is to continue year after year to return to the key aspects of following Jesus with an intention to wrap our heads, hearts, and lives around him and his work in the world. 1 Peter is written to “elect exiles,” disciples of Jesus who are scattered all around the Roman Empire, trying to figure out how to follow Jesus in a world radically opposed to Him and His way. He writes to remind them of the Story they are in and the work God has done for them, and to call them to live with a whole-life allegiance to Jesus and His Kingdom.
Almost every September we do a short series together on Sundays and in our Communities around our Core Priorities: Gospel Formation, Life in Community, and Everyday Mission. Our desire is to continue year after year to return to the key aspects of following Jesus with an intention to wrap our heads, hearts, and lives around him and his work in the world. 1 Peter is written to “elect exiles,” disciples of Jesus who are scattered all around the Roman Empire, trying to figure out how to follow Jesus in a world radically opposed to Him and His way. He writes to remind them of the Story they are in and the work God has done for them, and to call them to live with a whole-life allegiance to Jesus and His Kingdom. His first priority is to see them make a clean break from the ways of the world and to grow increasingly into the character and ways of God, motivated by their new status as adopted children through the precious blood of Jesus.
Through the summer we have been slowing down to spend time in 8 different Psalms, looking a the 8 core emotions. The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life includes our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use, our emotions.
This week we look at Gladness.
Over the next several weeks we will slow down to spend time in 8 different Psalms, looking a the 8 core emotions. The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life includes our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use, our emotions.
This week we look at Shame.
Over the next several weeks we will slow down to spend time in 8 different Psalms, looking a the 8 core emotions. The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life includes our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use, our emotions.
This week we look at Guilt.
The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides an opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life include our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use our emotions.
This week we look at Sadness.
The Psalms invite us into raw, passionate, and emotive life with God. The psalmists regularly expose the truth of their feelings before God, even in ways that may seem taboo in our lives. Many of us have believed that feelings are bad and can not be trusted. We've believed that feelings are poor guides, untrustworthy, and will ultimately lead us astray. The truth is, God gave us our emotions. Each of our emotions are helpful tools, leading us to whole-hearted living. Get this - our feelings can be a pathway to Jesus. Emotions expose our neediness. Our neediness provides opportunity for us to be vulnerable. Genuine prayer allows us to bring our full selves to Jesus. Deep faith and full life includes our feelings. We can trust that Jesus can handle, and even use, our emotions.
This week we look at Fear. Fear allows us to experience risk. It awakens us to danger and begins the development of wisdom. We see how David experienced fear and through the wild experience of facing the fear that encircled him, he was able to experience the reality of the trustworthiness of God.
On Politics and Power: We affirm the need for Christian civic and political involvement to be marked by a thoughtful, intentional, and theologically-informed cultivation of good citizenship. While our primarily allegiance is to Jesus and His Kingdom, we believe we are called to honor our political leaders as servants of God. We are to be marked by reasonableness, gentleness, and common courtesy, resisting the temptation to speak evil of anyone or to misrepresent the perspectives of those with whom we disagree. We are called to be salt and light in the world, people of deep virtue and abundant good works. Like our King, we are to use whatever power or privilege we’ve been graciously given to serve all people. And we are to root our identity, security, and hope in the good news of the gospel, freeing us to devote ourselves to good works, especially toward the most urgent needs of our world.
On Sexuality and Gender: We affirm a historic Christian view of the goodness of the human body, the purposeful creation of humans as male or female, and the sacredness of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman, designed by God to signify the relationship between Christ and his Church. Sexual intimacy is intended by God to enjoyed within that covenant. We believe sin has impacted every aspect of creation, including human sexuality, and that same-sex sexual desire and incongruence between one’s biological sex and one’s gender identity was never a part of God’s intention for humanity. Through Christ, God is redeeming his people, and empowers us by His Spirit to a life of increasing holiness, conforming to the image of Christ, including the redemption of our sexuality and sexual desires. Because we belong to Jesus, we are called to turn away from thoughts, actions, desires, or behaviors that do not align with God’s intentions for human sexuality. In the church — which is the Family of God — relationships of mutual interdependence and non-sexual intimacy ought to abound, so that all people experience the reality of our shared identity as brothers and sisters as we yearn toward holiness together.
Complementarian: We are deeply committed to the equality of men and women, to the shared identity of brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the complementary roles of men and women in marriage and the church. Both men and women are created in the image of God and are therefore equal before God as persons, possessing the same moral dignity and value, and have equal access to God through faith in Christ. In the church, men and women relate to one another primarily as brothers and sisters, in relationships marked by honor, care, and sacrifice for one another. Men and women are together charged with the Great Commission, and are recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the church and world. Therefore, men and women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilize their gifting in ministry, in service to the body of Christ and in mission to the world. While both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, God has given to the man primary responsibility for his wife and family in accordance with the servanthood and sacrificial love characterized by Jesus Christ. This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving, tender, and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ. Men of qualified character may serve as elders of the local church, overseeing, shepherding, and protecting the church family under the headship of Jesus Christ. Both qualified men and qualified women may serve as deacons, leading ministry teams according to role and gifting.
Spirit-Led: We recognize and rest upon the necessity of the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit for all of life and ministry. The Holy Spirit is fully God, equal with the Father and Son, whose primary ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He also convicts unbelievers of their need for Christ and imparts spiritual life through regeneration (the new birth). The Spirit permanently indwells, graciously sanctifies, lovingly leads, and empowers all who are brought to faith in Christ so that they might live in obedience to the Scriptures. The model for our reliance upon the Spirit and our experience of his indwelling and empowering presence is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who was filled with the Spirit and entirely dependent upon his power for the performance of miracles, the preaching of the kingdom of God, and all other dimensions of his earthly ministry. The Holy Spirit who indwelt and empowered Christ in like manner indwells and empowers us through spiritual gifts he has bestowed for the work of ministry and the building up of the body of Christ. We recognize the gifts of the Spirit as divine provisions central to spiritual growth and effective ministry, and affirm the full range of spiritual gifts to be eagerly desired, faithfully developed, and lovingly exercised according to biblical guidelines.
Reformed: We celebrate the sovereignty of God and his grace in saving sinners, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. We affirm that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not on the basis of foreseen faith but unconditionally, according to his sovereign good pleasure and will. We believe that through the work of the Holy Spirit, God will draw the elect to faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously and effectually overcoming their stubborn resistance to the gospel so that they will most assuredly and willingly believe. We also believe that these, the elect of God whom he gave to the Son, will persevere in belief and godly behavior and be kept secure in their salvation by grace through faith. We believe that God’s sovereignty in this salvation neither diminishes the responsibility of people to believe in Christ nor marginalizes the necessity and power of prayer and evangelism, but rather reinforces and establishes them as the ordained means by which God accomplishes his ordained ends.
Missional: We embrace a missionary understanding of the local church and its role as the primary means by which God establishes his kingdom. The Scriptures reveal a God on mission, sending his Son to seek and save what has been lost, and then sending his Spirit to empower his people to carry on his mission. In the life and ministry of Jesus, and through his death and resurrection, the Kingdom of God is breaking into this world. The church has a clear biblical mandate to look beyond its own community to the neighborhood, the nation, and the world as a whole; thus, mission is not an optional program in the church but an essential element in the identity of the church. We are called to make Christ known through the gospel and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring his lordship to bear on every dimension of life. The primary way we fulfill this mission is through making disciples, training leaders, forming missional communities, and planting churches that plant churches. Our aim is that Jesus Christ would be more fully formed in each person through the ministry of those churches God enables us to plant around the world. We also believe we are responsible neither to retreat from our culture nor to conform to it, but with humility, through the Spirit and the truth of the gospel, to engage it boldly as we seek its transformation and submission to the lordship of Christ.
The gospel is the good news of what God has graciously accomplished for sinners through the sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection and soon return of his Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ — namely, our forgiveness from sin and complete justification before God resulting in our adoption as his sons and daughters. This gospel is also the foundation for our confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom, and the consummation of his purpose for all creation in the new heavens and new earth. This gospel is centered in Jesus Christ, is the foundation for the life and mission of the church, and is our only hope for eternal life. This gospel is not proclaimed if Christ’s penal substitutionary death and bodily resurrection are not central to our message. This gospel is not only the means by which people are saved but also the truth and power by which people are sanctified; it is the truth of the gospel that enables us to genuinely and joyfully do what is pleasing to God and to grow in progressive conformity to the image of Christ. The salvation offered in this gospel message is received by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; no ordinance, ritual, work, or any other activity on the part of humanity is required in order to be saved.
Psalm 44 is likely a Psalm written during or near the end of Israel's exile, and moves from an encouraging reminder of God's historical faithfulness to an impassioned cry for God to show his saving power again. The first 3 verses have been one of the texts we've leaned on over the last 3 years as we've asked God to continue to grow us into a long-term, disciple-making presence in our region and beyond. This week we celebrate Church Plant Sunday, and talk about how our Planted Initiative and securing permanent facilities will allow us to plant churches locally, regionally, and globally for years to come.
Who appears to be stronger? Jesus or Caesar? Who would you follow? Who would you bet on? In this moment, Caesar looks strong and Jesus looks weak. But through this weakness, Jesus will conquer the world. Caesar ruled by conquering lands and subjugating people. Jesus ruled by conquering sin, death, and the grave and freeing people. This King bore the full weight of God’s anger and judgment towards the evil of the world. Then He rose again to new life, and was presented before the Ancient of Days, given dominion, kingdom, that all peoples, languages, and nations should serve him… No one is worshiping Caesar today. But billions bow the knee to Jesus. Behold your King!
We’ve seen so much goodness in Daniel and the Boys, watching and learning from them how to navigate life in a world that is not our home. They’ve modeled a kind of faithful presence — in the city, for the city, but not of the city — that might be one of the most helpful biblical pictures for disciples in our current cultural context. This week we look back over the lessons we’ve learned, taking notes on how to live with a winsome faithfulness in our own corrupt and corrupting Babylon. We’ll end our study in Daniel by looking at the vision Daniel receives in chapter 7. And it is apocalyptic, in the best sense of the word: The curtain is pulled back and Daniel gets let in on the behind-the-scenes realities of the cosmos, complete with terrifying beasts and heavenly judgments. And while the details of the vision are hotly debated, the main point is so very clear: Jesus wins, and his people will be vindicated forever!
Another chapter brings another new king for Daniel to get to know, with another new set of rules to follow. While the satraps and officials play dirty, Daniel does the same thing he has always done: he gets down on his knees to pray. Conflict with the empire seems to be the norm for Daniel, as it is for every person living a life of “faithful presence”, but he has learned how to abide in the midst of the storm. He’s been getting his Daily Bread from the Father’s Table for decades, and that vibrant inner life with the Spirit is what empowers him to walk into the lion's den without a word of complaint. And while Daniel is praying, the world is watching... and God is working. As Exiles in our modern Babylon, we find ourselves in a similar situation with the insanity of our ever-changing social norms. Fortunately, we have access to the same power by the same Spirit.
One of the main themes of our Exiles series has been the sovereign working of God behind the scenes even when godless Babylon seems to be prospering unhindered, and in Daniel 5 Babylon’s self-glorying comes to a crescendo. Belshazzar throws himself a great drunken feast in mockery of God and his people. But it is the last straw, and God brings the king trembling to his knees. Daniel has been off-stage for about 30 years, working in obscurity, no longer at the center of the drama. But he’s remained faithful and ready, and when God opens a door of opportunity he’s able to step through it with boldness. Once again, humble faithfulness outlasts and overpowers the pomp and pride of godless Babylon.
Daniel’s ongoing service and reputation grants him another opportunity to serve on the world stage. He is called on to interpret another troubling dream for the king of Babylon. Daniel is genuinely grieved when he hears the dream because he knows its interpretation: the king will be humbled, unless he repents. Daniel’s relationship & years of faithful presence allow him to speak boldly to the king. He actually wants good for the king. In love for Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel calls the king to repentance before God. With genuine hope and care, Daniel’s message is delivered with hopes that God might spare the king. Judgment and suffering do come, yet in the end through God’s mercy, it seems as if the king does indeed repent, is converted, and his kingdom and flourishing are restored. The pagan king turns into an evangelist, boldly proclaiming the wonders of the sovereign God of Daniel. As Exiles in our modern Babylon, we find ourselves in the shadows of powers that desire flourishing but are mixed up in troubling situations. We, like Daniel, are faced with certain opportunities to serve, care, and proclaim the wonders of a sovereign God. We do this in the margins with everyday locals, and on the main stage with powers and principalities.
Daniel and his friends are faithful Israelites, born and raised. But they are no longer in the Promised Land where daily life is governed by biblical morality and the broader culture is shaped by and encourages their faith. Instead, they’re surrounded by a cultural reality with which they feel deeply at odds, under a great deal of pressure to conform to the ways of Babylon while the consequences for holding faith and conviction are steadily increasing. And while we’re 2 millennia away from them, the parallels are remarkable: The West is increasingly post-Christian, resulting in a rapid rise in both a liberal secularism and conservative religionism. Disciples of Jesus are waking up to the reality that America is not our true home. We are Exiles here, sojourners in a land that we’ve been sent to and called to serve, but we do not belong to the American empire any more than Daniel belonged to Babylon. This posture—in the city, for the city, but not of the city—is what makes the church both faithful and winsome, even though the position is often costly. This week we look at Daniel 3, and talk about how and when to draw hard lines of conviction, particularly as the pressure to conform increases.
Daniel 2 opens with King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world, afraid, agitated, and paranoid from a series of bad dreams — and he’s ready for heads to roll, including those of the Jewish exiles. But Daniel doesn’t panic or picket; rather, he goes to his community of faithful exiles to seek mercy from God. This little band of faithful see themselves as sent to Babylon to seek the welfare of Babylon, and they do so in prayer, trusting the sovereignty of God and the plans he has for them. God reveals the dream to Daniel, who is then given the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom to the King. As Exiles, we’re challenged to believe that God is sovereign over kings and kingdoms, that he’s bringing a final Kingdom in his Son, and that we are called to be a unique kind of counter-formation community within the Babylon in which we live. In order to resist the de-forming pressures of the empire, we need to form communities of prayer, revelation, rest and worship who see ourselves as sent to this city in this time for God’s kingdom purposes.
Our Spring series will be rooted in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Daniel and his 3 friends are ripped out of the land of Israel and dragged into Babylon, the land of Israel’s greatest enemy. They’re re-homed, re-named, re-educated, and re-purposed as Babylon attempts to stamp out their Jewish identity and their allegiance to Yahweh. But God speaks a surprising word to his people: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf” (Jeremiah 29.7). So here’s the tension: These exiles must love and bless Babylon, but they must not be conformed to it; They must serve their enemies, but they cannot serve their gods; They must be among the Babylonians for the good of the Babylonians, all while maintaining their allegiance to God and their identity as his people. Our series will explore these tensions, looking at how the New Testament writers pick up this biblical theme of exile as a way to describe the Christian experience. This week we explore the de-forming influences of our own Babylon, discuss what faithfulness looks like, and celebrate the good news that Jesus is on his throne sovereignly orchestrating all of history for his glory and our joy!
Who we are and are becoming is directly related to where we’re finding our sense of identity, belonging, and purpose. Our hearts and minds are being formed every moment of every day. Throughout the week there is a steady stream of devices, creeds, and ideologies vying for our attention. This input is simply subtle & sly. It can also be openly ornate & overpriced. Whatever it is, it is obvious that we live in a world competing for the narrative. Our hearts can become confused, our people disseminated thinly, and our mission dulled. That’s the reason we gather week after week. We need to be reminded of our identity, our belonging, and our purpose. We need to engage with our God and with His people to fuel our everyday mission.
The great gift of the gospel is assurance - we can know where we stand with God and we can rest in his affectionate gaze. God is for us, with us, and will sustain us to the end, because of Jesus Christ. So what hinders us from living with great joy and confidence and security? On one hand, we've got critics - in our own heads, in the people around us, and in the enemy of our souls - and we shrink back from fully enjoying God's love. On the other hand, we experience hardship in the world - pressures of life, persecution, and suffering - and we measure God's love based on these difficulties. The gospel calls us beyond all that, proclaiming the sufficiency of Jesus to silence our enemies and the sacrifice of Jesus to conquer our uncertainties. Come Holy Spirit!
Life in the Spirit is the unique privilege of the adopted child of God, and God’s ultimate goal for us as his children is glorification: to be conformed to the image of his Son. God has nothing less in mind for you than a full restoration of who he created you to be and what he created you to do. When Paul says we will be “glorified” with Christ, he is looking all the way back to Genesis 1-2, reminding us of God’s original intent in creation, and promising us a full restoration of all that has been lost, for us and for the creation. But none of that means we avoid the harsh realities of this broken world and the suffering here. In fact, our future glorification actually increases the suffering here, as we are now called to forsake the kingdom of self and the ways of the world in order to live for the kingdom of God. Thankfully, in the midst of our suffering, the Spirit is with us, sharpening our hope, helping us in our weakness, and carrying us through to glory!
The declaration of "No Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus" opens up the possibility of a new way of being human: A life no longer driven by self-will (which always leads to personal, communal, and spiritual death) but led by the Spirit (which always leads to life and peace). The new way of the Spirit calls us to put to death the old ways of being as they continue to reside in us and our community, and to offer ourselves together as living sacrifices, learning to do life under the leadership of the Spirit of God in us and among us. At the heart of all this is the experience of knowing God as our "Abba, Father" and knowing ourselves as his adopted children and future heirs. Christians have the unique privilege of knowing where we stand with God (no condemnation!) and experiencing his loving presence now (the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abba! Father!). That's the heart of Christian Life -- not just knowing about God and the fact of no condemnation, but knowing him and being known by him, and having a real sense of his love for us by the Spirit.
You. Are. His. In Romans 11, Paul keeps coming back to these declarative statements because our great need is to remember what Christ has done and why He has done it. We must remind ourselves and be reminded of who we are: “The gospel broke through because it isn’t just about the fact that we are all fallen-that part is easy for me to swallow... it's about the fact that we are perfectly loved. And that is the part I have a hard time believing on a minute-by-minute basis.”
What if the story of scripture is that there's a better way than resolutions or "trying harder"? In Christ, we are free from the condemnation of the law, and fulfill its righteous requirements by the Spirit, and there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those in Christ Jesus. No more wondering where I stand with God or if I have done enough. No more slinking into his presence, hoping he hasn’t noticed my recent performance. No more shame-driven hiding or fear-based groveling — you can come in like a perfect Son or Daughter adored by the Father!
Paul’s whole point in Romans 8 — this entire chapter, & in some ways all the chapters leading up to this — is summarized in one word: Assurance. We can have this kind of certainty and live with complete assurance: God is with me! God is for me! Not based on my feelings or my circumstances but based on CHRIST. All that he has done is ours in him. And by the Spirit — who meets us with presence, power, comfort, care, help — we have every reason for confidence!
Sunday mornings are a unique time for the broader Soma Spokane Family to gather together. We do this to engage with God and each other to fuel our lives for the missionary work of gospel proclamation in our regular rhythms. This week we dive into the specific liturgical moments that occur week after week on Sundays. The hope is to give a framework and highlight each of these moments so that we can engage more easily and at a greater depth. The 11 steps of our liturgy are: Gather, Community, Call to Worship, Confession, Assurance, Prayer, Word, Communion, Thanksgiving, Benediction, and Scatter.
We love to be loved. We love to love. We love the idea of love. We love to think we know what love is. We love to celebrate love - especially during the holidays. Our feel-good culture assumes that there is a common, agreed-upon working definition of love. But, our experiences, reasoning, culture, and traditions fail to properly pattern love. We are often sold misery, labeled as love. In this world, we are left wanting. Instead of defining love, our weary world becomes the host of love incarnate. The third week of Advent is a celebration of the coming of love. In Jesus, love is perfectly displayed and extravagantly offered! The love of God was made manifest among us! Love has arrived!
Some of the favorite verses for this time of the year declare “peace on earth and goodwill to men,” and that Jesus is going to come as the “prince of peace.” And yet, the promise of peace seems to elude the practical felt lives we lead. What we are going to search through is that “Peace is the conscious possession of adequate resources.” If that is true, and that adequate resources are provided in Jesus, then our conscious possession needs to focus on something different this season. We need a switch in what we see, lean on, and worship as our resource for life.
Advent means “arrival,” and is traditionally a time to consider what it would have been like to live before Jesus came, holding to the promises of God’s rescue but not yet seeing them in real-time. It is also a time of wonder and surprise because God’s rescue did not come as anyone expected! On Sundays in December we are looking at the traditional themes of Advent — the arrival of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy in Jesus — and hearing from a variety of Soma people as they share how they’ve experienced these gifts in the last year.
Planted is so much more than a capital campaign, and we’re committing so much more than our money. After 17 years of fruitful mission and ministry in rented facilities, we’re eager to become fully Planted in our city and region as a long-term disciple-making presence. We conclude our Planted series by making a 2-year financial commitment so we can take this historic next step together. But we do so as Paul urged the Corinthians, giving ourselves - all we are - first to the Lord. We remember all we have in Jesus, secured by his sacrifice and loss, and we submit ourselves to him as our Lord. We consider ourselves as stewards, entrusted with the resources of our King, and eager to joyfully and generously sow them into this initiative. In our final look at 2 Corinthians 8-9, we’ll summarize all we’ve learned and gather to prayerfully commit to Jesus and one another. Joyful Generosity is a way of life rooted in the grace of Jesus in which you freely and proactively seek to give money away, seeing yourself as a steward of God’s resources for his purposes, and do so until it makes a measurable difference in your lifestyle, to the glory of God.
Planted is a means of furthering the vision of Soma, which we find in Habakkuk 2.14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” If we’re going to commit to Planted, we need to first be convinced that God is in this and that financial generosity to this initiative leads to that great end! As we conclude our study in 2 Corinthians 8-9, Paul describes the reciprocal nature of generosity, showing how both givers and receivers bring glory to God and declare the gospel to a watching world. Financial giving meets material needs, leading to a groundswell of thanksgiving to God from those who receive. Those who receive grow in trust and love, and give spiritual resources through prayer to those who give, building up the giver’s faith and leading to their spiritual growth. According to Paul, this circular nature of generosity is a wonderfully good gift of our generous Father, whose glory will fill the earth through the praises of his people!
In just 2 weeks we’ll be asking everyone in the Soma family to make a 2-year financial commitment to our Planted initiative and the vision of being a long-term disciple-making presence in our region and beyond. Our hope is that these 2 years will grow us into a more joyful, free, and generous people all across the board. In this section, Paul urges the Corinthians toward bountiful, cheerful, abundant giving by reminding them how the economy of God’s Kingdom works. All we have has been given by God, and he gives abundantly to us so we can give abundantly to his purposes. Our resources belong to him, and when we’re not generous we’re not just greedy but also thieves, taking what was entrusted to us for ourselves! Paul reminds us that God promises to enrich us in every way so we can be generous in every way. God will multiply our seed for sowing, entrusting us with greater resources to steward, as we learn to step courageously into joyful generosity.
Over the next 2 years, we’re hoping to raise $1 million above our regular budget for the vision of Planted. That’s a wild and audacious goal, and we’re asking the whole Soma family to participate. But to be honest, fundraising is a really strange part of ministry, and can get really confusing for everyone involved. In this section we see Paul trying to walk a fine line as he raises funds for the ministry need in Jerusalem. While it is necessary for him to share the need and equip the Corinthians for financial generosity, he doesn’t want to manipulate or coerce them, as that would entirely miss the point. He really believes that generosity is a result of genuine love for Jesus, echoing Jesus’ words about how what we do with our treasure reveals the state of our hearts. Once we have the right heart motivations in place, we’re ready to start taking practical steps toward greater generosity. Joyful generosity involves looking at our abundance, planning proactively so we are ready to give willingly and freely as opportunities arise.
After 17 fruitful years of being a family on mission, we’re ready to make a faith-filled journey toward permanent facilities. Our goal is to lean into being a long-term disciple-making presence in our region and beyond, and so we’re dreaming together and raising the funds we need to make it happen. To that end, we’re asking the Soma family to spend a month considering the biblical teaching on generosity and to make a 2-year financial commitment to the vision of Planted. Our aim is to grow into sacrificial and joyful generosity, rooted in personal experience of the sacrificial generosity of Jesus Christ. Without deep knowledge of his work for you - all he gave up on your behalf, and all you’ve been given in him - living a life of generosity will never make any sense. Paul urges us to reflect on the grace of Jesus until we’re transformed, leading to a radical, sacrificial, and joyful lifestyle of generosity.
We end our series, “Vintage Faith: Following the Way,” with a summary of what we’re calling Great Commission Christianity, looking at all Jesus packed into these few words at the end of Matthew’s gospel. Each phrase of the Great Commission speaks to an absolutely essential aspect of what it means to know, trust, and follow Jesus in a wholistic way; lose any aspect of the Great Commission and you have a deficient form of Christianity that will inevitably result in deformed disciples. In the difficult, draining, and confusing time we live in, what a gift Jesus has given us in this simple but rich framework! Together we’re partnering as a church to live into this vision and mission for the coming year.
Following the Way of Jesus can’t be done in our own strength or wisdom, so it is really good news to know that Jesus promises to be with us always. The same Jesus we see in the gospels — flesh and blood human; teaching, serving, and suffering; rising in glory — is the same One who comes to be with each and everyone of us by His Spirit. As the church steps out into mission, the Holy Spirit leads us, reminding us that we are adopted, leading us into all truth, filling us with God’s love, and emboldening us for witness. We’re invited to increasingly rely on the empowering presence of God as he sends us to fulfill the Great Commission together.
Following the Way of Jesus encompasses all of life, bringing significance to even the most mundane and normal parts of our days. Jesus came to make us fully alive, to teach us to live abundant life, and obeying him is not a burden but a release and a relief. Followers are learning to engage everyday practices — eat, listen, story, bless, celebrate, recreate — as followers of his way, infusing every aspect of life with Jesus. To that end, we want everyone to craft a shared set of practices around the way of Jesus together, and commit to following the way of Jesus together.
Following the Way of Jesus begins with baptism, the public declaration of what Jesus has done in us. At the same time, baptism also functions as an immersion into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the beginning of a new way of life. The command to make disciples is accomplished as we form people into their new identity built on their new relationship to the Father, Son, and Spirit. In this way, we are shaping a disciple’s sense of identity — who they are and to whom they belong — as we help them learn to obey Jesus. Together we’re living into our new identity in Jesus Jesus as Family, Servants, and Missionaries, and helping others to do the same.
Following the Way of Jesus is about making Jesus and his disciple-making mission the organizing principle of our lives. Jesus supplies everything we need to re-orient the whole of our lives around his mission, to step into the places he has sent us with courage and conviction, and to bring the presence, kingdom, and message of Jesus. Together we’re orienting our real, everyday lives around the mission and purpose of Jesus, and increasingly surrendering all of life to him and his way.
Following the Way of Jesus is founded on and empowered by the good news of the gospel — all that is ours in the person and work of Jesus! The massive claim of the Great Commission is Jesus’ words, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” Together we’re learning to rely whole-heartedly on Jesus, and humbly taking responsibility for our own growth as disciples.
Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness and for Jesus' name. Persecution is the selecting out of individuals and groups on the basis of ideology for intended harm. The ideology given in this beatitude is for “Righteousness' sake” and “on my account.” In America, it seems we have rarely felt persecution on these terms. But here is yet another invitation by Jesus to be His people, to be a part of restoration’s long story, and engage in the work of God the Father, to absorb, rescue, and proclaim the truth of history and our Savior. And as we experience the same resistance to this work we see we are right alongside our Savior, doing the same work. We are going to finish off the Beatitudes embracing what life throws at us knowing we are joining with our savior in His work and being His people.
We live in a world that increasingly lacks peace. There is ever-growing conflict and division. How will peace ever have its day? The good news of the Gospel is Jesus accomplished peace by reconciling us to the Father. Through the cross, Jesus became our peace and is now inviting us to walk in the “pathway of peace.” This week we explore what that looks like in our daily lives.
Since the moment the Garden of Eden was closed off, mankind has longed to see God face to face. But because of our sin, even Moses was told "no one can look upon the face of God and live." Now Jesus is proclaiming that we can see the face of God - but only if we're "pure in heart"... and immediately everyone within hearing distance is dismayed, because we all know our hearts aren't pure. He is introducing an idea that he will build on later in the Sermon on the Mount - that no matter how righteous our actions, our impure hearts mean separation from God, and the only way to be reunited with God face to face is through a purity which comes from outside of ourselves and transforms us from the inside out. It is exactly when we realize we can't create a pure heart on our own that we become the "blessed" that Jesus speaks of.
It has been said that grace is associated with men in their sin, while mercy deals with men in their misery. Mercy is more than not getting the punishment deserved. Mercy is someone seeing another’s pain, suffering, and misery and moving toward the person with compassion and action. This week we look at the fifth beatitude to hear more of the scandalous, joyful, and bewildering announcements of God’s Kingdom. In Jesus, misery collides with hope. Jesus proclaims blessing on those who are merciful; blessing on those who are painfully aware of suffering and have moved toward misery with care.
The world is not as it was meant to be, and you don’t have to be a Christian to know it! All around us, among our best relationships, and even within ourselves, we sense the reality that things are off, and we’re always trying to make them right. We want what the bible calls “righteousness,” the desire for all things to be as they ought, with God, one another, ourselves, and in the world. Jesus names this desire in Matthew 5.6, announcing his blessing to those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” That unmet longing, according to Jesus, is deep in us because we were made for Eden, made for a world of goodness and flourishing, and we’re over-built for the world as it is. Jesus blesses that longing, and promises a satisfaction of it that will be like a feast of rich food. That feast begins now in Jesus, in the righteousness of God given as a gift to those who confess they have none. The feast is a shared table of fellow sinners-declared-righteous, where joy and love abounds. It is an invitation to the feast for those who have been mistreated, who lack justice, who live in a world broken and full of deep injustice. And as we feast, we're fueled for a life of justice doing until Jesus returns to make all things right.
The meek will inherit the earth, and if you are like me, I don’t find myself all that meek. The problem then would be that if I am not meek, I am missing out on blessing and inheriting the land. Most certainly, who Jesus was talking to at that moment were meek. They were the poor in spirit, the broken of life, and clambering up the hill to put their trust, not in themselves, but in Jesus for Life. They had brought their hardships of life to the one who could handle them and in this, Jesus looks at them and says, blessed are you meek people, how unshakeable is your peace and shalom, I am going to fulfill my promises for you, the land is coming and I am going to be your king. Again, if you are like me, I don’t find myself all that meek. But there is good news for those coming to Jesus. The fake confidence and reasons why I am okay that is covering my meekness is really not all that strong or thick and so this week we will ask Jesus to pull off the thin veneer of confidence to reveal the truth and reality that might bring us to a life of meekness.
As Jesus starts his famous Sermon on the Mount, he looks out on the crowds and begins to announce blessing on all the broken and beat-down people of the world. In particular, he sees so many people carrying heavy stories of sadness — grievers, mourners, and the brokenhearted. Jesus doesn’t recoil from them, as if the weight of their grief is some sort of liability to be avoided. He doesn’t look past them in hopes of finding more put-together and well-to-do people. He hasn’t come searching for people who have managed to avoid sadness, loss, and grief (as if that were possible!). Jesus looks right at brokenhearted people, with the full weight of their sadness, pain, loss, and makes a remarkable declaration: The Kingdom of God is for you! God’s deepest peace and his comforting presence — his free gift of salvation — is for you! And Jesus looks at us, with all our grief and pain, and says, I’m glad you are here, and your sorrows are welcome to come right in with you. Jesus invites us to feel and grieve our losses, to bring them to him for comfort, and to watch how he transforms them.
These words are the heart of Jesus' message: the sermon on the mount is the heart and summary of all Jesus’ teachings, the Beatitudes are the heart and summary of the sermon on the mount, and Blessed are the poor in Spirit is the heart and summary of the Beatitudes. Blessed means to have an unshakeable peace and shalom in all situations of life, a resting place and serenity no matter the circumstances. The Poor in Spirit are the beggarly of life. The empty and broken. And the Kingdom of Heaven is offered to such as these. We all are offered moments to see the true beggarly-ness of life, our empty-ness, our brokenness. It is exactly when our life is shaken, life reveals the brokenness inside and out that we have the opportunity to scramble up the hill to listen to Jesus and hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. Our task is to embrace our brokenness, our poor in spirit, as a path to seeing that Jesus had to come in order to save me. My brokenness can be the best news ever because it will lead me to a place of blessed -- a place of unshakeable peace.
As we wrap up our series in the Pastoral Epistles, we’re stepping back and trying to get the big picture one last time. These are Paul’s final letters, and they are written to make sure the churches he started stay the course and become long-term disciple-making outposts. All 3 letters are filled with rich theology and practical direction for churches on mission. Faithful churches embrace 4 priorities, all shaped by the gospel of Jesus: Conviction (theological clarity), Character (deep formation), Culture (healthy community), and Context (faithful witness). This week we survey these letters, wrap up the series, and drive home the goodness of all we’ve learned. Remember Jesus Christ!
The health and strength of each and every local church is Paul’s number one priority in his letters to Timothy and Titus. In Acts, we see Paul’s concern to preach the gospel and make disciples all around the Roman Empire. But his ministry doesn’t end there — he moves to gather new disciples into churches, to establish local leadership, and to commission each church to continue making disciples in their context. As he established these churches, he wanted them to have clear gospel doctrine and gracious gospel culture, so that they could be faithful witnesses to the gospel. In the final chapter of his letter to Titus, Paul tells him to ‘remind’ the church of the importance of how they interact with a hostile world, committing themselves to good and gracious service to all people at all times and in all ways. As people who’ve been rescued graciously by Jesus and given the gift of his Spirit, disciples of Jesus live a humble and courageous life of kindness toward all people.
Last week, we explored what Paul wanted to clarify for Titus: that elders are responsible for clarifying doctrine, modeling godly living, and equipping the church for faithful mission. This week, in chapter 2, we will look at what a healthy, engaged, gospel-centered church could look like. Many of us have seen damaged churches, suffering from the spiritual abuse, hypocrisy, and failures of her leaders. We know that a distracted and adrift church can suck the life from her people and the surrounding community. In contrast, a healthy, gospel-centered church can be a vibrant, life-giving, sweet aroma for everyone. A flourishing church will hold a high view of sound doctrine, the people will be engaged in active discipleship at every level, good speech and works will be the norm, and authority will have dignity and integrity allowing the people to submit joyfully. Imagine that! These marks show up not because of the good behavior and skill of the people, this happens when people become fixated on Jesus’ grace & glory.
We’ll spend the next few weeks looking at Paul’s letter to Titus, a letter very similar to Paul’s two letters to Timothy. Titus is on the island of Crete where he’s been given a very similar charge as Timothy: Get the churches there fully established so they can have a long-term disciple-making presence! Paul wants the churches strong in gospel truth, beautiful in relationship, and faithful in witness to Jesus. In spite of being in a hard context — many within the church are sowing confusion and many outside the church are pressuring and persecuting — Titus must clarify true doctrine, teach and model godly living, and equip the church for faithful mission. In chapter 1 we see that one of the primary means of the church’s long-term health and fruitfulness is the courage, conviction, and character of the leaders, especially the elders.
We are finishing up Paul’s second letter to Timothy, and he is going to finish his thought on how to fight with very similar themes; actively go work out the kingdom of God and ground yourself in truth. This week we again cover what we are fighting for and then see yet again how Paul calls us to join in this fight. Paul then finishes his letter off with what actually empowers all of our life and the kingdom, grace, and so we will also leave the morning with grace poured out over us.
In Acts 20.29, Paul warned the leaders of the church of Ephesus to watch out for “fierce wolves” who will come among the church and “draw the disciples away.” A few years later, Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus because the church there was in danger, just as Paul had predicted. And now, in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he’s encouraging him to identify, confront, and silence those false teachers and get the church reentered on Jesus, his ways, and his mission. It is no easy task! Thankfully, God has not left Timothy - or us - to figure it out on our own. Our main weapon in this fight is the Bible, where we have both the Old Testament story of God and the New Testament witness to Jesus. By abiding in the Scriptures, we can live with clarity and conviction in the context we find ourselves!
As we continue our study in 2 Timothy this Sunday, we’ll be looking at what it takes to really stay the course as disciples of Jesus when the world is going crazy. Timothy is in Ephesus, where the cultural pressures around the church and the false teachers within the church are threatening the vitality of the church and her mission. For a local church like ours to remain faithful to Jesus, to his word, and to his ways is always such a fight! But it is a fight won not through coercion, politics, or power, but through the faithful transmission of the message, patient endurance of opposition, tenacious commitment to integrity, and a gentle but firm correction of drift. Paul calls us to find our strength in the grace of Jesus, commit ourselves to his disciple-making mission, and endure to the glorious end.
This week we are beginning to read the second letter that Paul wrote to Timothy while he was staying in Ephesus. The first letter was all about what did the people of Ephesus need to hear, what was good doctrine, and what did Jesus actually come to do. But the second letter is more about Timothy than the people. After years of being in Ephesus, Timothy needs encouragement and Paul is going to write what I would call a pep talk to Timothy in order to help him fight to the end. 2 Timothy is a letter written by an aging Paul in Prison to Timothy who needs encouragement to hold on and continue to fight. In our first week looking at this letter we will see Paul encourage Timothy to fan into flame the gift within him and to choose to suffer for the gospel.
The first part of our “A Good Fight” series concludes by looking at Paul’s final charge in 1 Timothy 6. Paul gives Timothy some punchy exhortations — Flee! Pursue! Fight! Take Hold! Keep! Guard! Avoid! — in an effort to drive home the need to engage this fight with a gritty and grace-filled tenacity. The need to engage this fight has not lessened today, and in our own context face the battle on multiple fronts. Holding to the message of the gospel, with deep personal integrity and lives oriented to God’s Kingdom, will always be a hard-fought battle. But God is on his throne, sovereignly orchestrating history toward the great revealing of King Jesus, and our job is to cling to that hope together.
Growing up near the pacific coast there were many days that started with a cloudy marine layer, but most days, by noon the marine layer would burn off leaving a perfectly sunny climate to enjoy. Sometimes, around mid-day, you’d be surprised that the marine layer hasn’t burnt off and instead of a clear day, you’re left scrambling to find the hoodie you have somewhere. The spiritual life can feel like that. Sometimes things are so clear and lovely, glimpses of the way God meant them to be. Other times we are trapped in a place that seems like it is always winter but never Christmas. We long for the good life, and because of that, we find ourselves striving for it in a lot of odd ways. We claw, climb, and chase wealth, ambitious goals, relationships, and material as if it will bring about the good life. We even try to use God as a simple means to the good life. We compromise conviction and contentment for avarice and self-destruction. All the while God is patiently offering us treasure and a good foundation, so that we may take hold of that which is truly life.
The church in Ephesus was under attack, from both promiscuous licentious people swallowed in culture, and also from religious legalistic Gnostics who were saying salvation is from Jesus and obeying rules. These same forces are alive and well today. And they are moving and powerful and they push the church away from its story. Join that with our own desire to build our own little empire in life and you have a strong danger in the church. Paul moves in his letter in chapter 4 to instruct Timothy on how to have the church stand their ground and move forward into their city. They are to nourish themselves on the full story God’s rescue of mankind and then to discipline themselves for Godliness. To these two tasks, Paul uses the words, train, toil, strive, devote, practice, immerse, and persist. So this week we will encourage ourselves to nourish ourselves on the great epic story of Redemption and Jesus and also to discipline ourselves to godliness.
We drift from what is important. There is something in each of us that is prone to take the easier route, to forget our priorities, and slowly forget our commitments. Often, and especially when it comes to our faith, this drift happens in very subtle ways. Paul is writing because he is deeply concerned about the drift from gospel-centered mission in the church in Ephesus. He has strong warning and corrective instructions, but all these imperatives are rooted in, first and foremost, the Gospel of Jesus. In this section he is pleading with the church to not get distracted and attempting to recenter the church in her identity in Jesus. There is invitation for the church to hold tight to the message of truth and hold high on display of gospel of grace!
In chapter 3, Paul describes the kind of leadership structure that contributes to a local church flourishing in mission and ministry. Last week we learned that mission and ministry is what the whole church does, men and women, in our various contexts. Everyone is called to pray, live, and proclaim for gospel advancement. At the same time, a local church needs called and qualified leadership, and Paul says there ought to be two offices. Elders are the spiritual fathers of the community: men of character and integrity who hold the doctrinal DNA and oversee the mission and ministry of the church. Alongside them are the deacons: servant leaders among the church family — women and men tasked with helping the church accomplish the disciple-making ministry in all varieties of roles. Paul roots the call for men to be elders in the narrative of creation and fall, showing how Jesus restores us to a flourishing complementarity between men and women.
To read Soma Spokane’s position paper on Men, Women, and Ministry, click here: http://bit.ly/menandwomenstatement To access the Men & Women Study Guide, click here: http://bit.ly/menandwomenstudy
Paul’s main concern in his letters to Timothy and Titus is the flourishing of the church. Paul wants the churches he’s planted to be long-term disciple-making outposts, communities committed to Jesus, his way, and his mission in the world. In this week’s text, he’s specifically concerned to see that the churches remember their primary purpose of making Jesus known in word and deed. The gospel is the good news about God’s desire to save and his actions in and through Jesus to accomplish salvation. The church’s role is to pray fervently, live authentically, and speak boldly about this news so the world can see and hear it. Paul also warns the church about key ways we get distracted and drift from this mission, and how to fight together for single-minded missional unity.
Churches drift, dwindle, and die, unless they commit themselves to fight for something different. The fight - for gospel doctrine, character, and culture - is as important today as it has ever been, especially if our desire is to be a long-term disciple-making presence. This week, Paul gives us clarity regarding the role of the law and the gospel in the life of the church. The law - God’s commands and instructions - tells us what ought to be, but can’t create what it demands. Instead, the law reveals us as sinners and lays us low. Thankfully, Jesus meets us in that low place, when we’re laid bare as sinners. Paul celebrates the reality that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, welcoming in all those whom the law condemns.
All Spring we’re looking at Paul’s letters to his proteges, Timothy and Titus, as he passes along his ministry to them. Paul was a church planter, rescued by Jesus and called to take the gospel to nations. He did that by proclaiming the message of Jesus, making disciples, forming churches, and appointing leaders. He commissioned each church to be a mission outpost, and he’d write letters to keep them centered on Jesus and faithful in his mission. For Paul, the church wasn’t a side-project, an important but non-essential entity, just a local non-profit trying to help people; it was the very household of God, the people among who God dwelt by his Spirit, and the community entrusted with holding out the good news of Jesus to the world. Unfortunately, all that was in danger of being lost through false teaching and the graceless culture it created, so Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus to set things in order. This week we learn what the good fight really is, why it matters, and how we can engage it today.
The Apostle Paul was the world’s greatest evangelist and church planter, and one of his strongest churches was in Ephesus. He spent 3 years there, preaching, making disciples, and establishing leaders. When he later wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he laid out the glory of the gospel and the grand purpose of God in the church, and gave them almost no challenges or correctives. This was a strong church with a disciple-making presence in their region! Unfortunately, the church at Ephesus quickly found themselves divided and drifting after Paul’s departure, losing grip on both the gospel doctrine and gospel culture Paul had set in place. So Paul sent his protege, Timothy, to set things in order and bring the church back in line. This week we’ll do an overview of 1 Timothy, and look at the 4 Strategic Priorities Paul gives Timothy. Our study in the Pastoral Epistles - 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus - will equip us to be a church with strong gospel conviction, deeply shaped gospel character, and a gracious gospel culture in our particular context. This is what Paul calls Timothy to reestablish in Ephesus, and it is what every church needs in order to be faithful to Jesus and his mission. Today, there is no church in Ephesus, and modern day Turkey is .02% Christian. The Pastoral Epistles will help us learn how to link arms and give ourselves to this difficult work in our day. It will be a fight, but it is A Good Fight - jump in!
We use this image, called 3 Trees, to represent how real growth and change happens. We can't just decide to change and automatically jump from a thorn-producing tree to a fruit-bearing tree. Instead, we have to trace our thoughts and behaviors down to their roots and bring them in need, confession and repentance to the Cross. When we allow Jesus' truth, love, and grace to change the deep, unreached areas of our hearts, something radically different comes out of us. God is at work, in the heat (situations of life) and wants to reveal the roots of our thorn ridden responses, not to shame us, but to set us free. This week we wrap up the series with one final look at the 3 Trees.
The person who wants to know God and live fully in Him must give God space and time. Space and time in a world that is constantly grasping for our attention. Our affection and desires continue to drift from God. When God justifies us through the cross, he also gives us his ongoing presence the Spirit to be our guide and our helper. There are also everyday practices that remind of us this good news, and help bring us back into connection with our Savior. These practices are not chores and they are not the goal. Spiritual disciplines are means to know and enjoy Him.
When it comes to growth and change in the Christian life, we face a significant tension. On one hand, Peter tells us we’ve been given everything we need to live a life of deep faithfulness, effectiveness, and fruitfulness. On the other hand, he tells us we have to be diligent and make every effort to mature and grow. It is incredibly important that we know how these twin truths fit together, or we risk missing God’s heart and intention for us. What Peter urges us toward is grace-based effort, where we fill our hearts and minds with all that Jesus is, all that he has done on our behalf, and all that we are now in him. Our primary work is to “preach the gospel to ourselves,” learning to really believe all that is true in the gospel. As we rehearse the gospel, repenting and believing in all God has done for us in Jesus, we’re empowered to live more into the image of Jesus. The answer is always more Jesus!
Throughout the history of God’s working with people to partner with them to redeem and bless the world, there has been a pattern of whenever the people made space for God’s Presence, He fills it. It happened in the tabernacle in the desert in Exodus, it happened with Solomon and the Temple, and then again even in Acts with the first Christians. God’s Spirit descended in power and fills His temple and empowers His mission. We are going to look at 2 Peter to see what this letter suggests we do in order to create space for God’s presence. How do we prepare our lives for the presence and power of God?
We use this image, called 3 Trees, to represent how real growth and change happens. We can't just decide to change and automatically jump from a thorn-producing tree to a fruit-bearing tree. Instead, we have to trace our thoughts and behaviors down to their roots and bring them in need, confession and repentance to the Cross. When we allow Jesus' truth, love, and grace to change the deep, unreached areas of our hearts, something radically different comes out of us. God is at work, in the heat (situations of life) and wants to reveal the roots of our thorn ridden responses, not to shame us, but to set us free.
January is always a time of reevaluating life and making changes - or at least intending to make changes! Personally, I look forward to it because of the opportunity it affords for a clean sheet and a fresh start, even though I know nothing really changes on January 1st. In fact, year after year I’m reminded of the simple (and haunting!) truth: Whatever I am on the outside, in my best and worst moments, reflects whatever I am on the inside. I simply can’t wake up on January 1st and choose to be more attentive in my relationships, less self-reliant and more dependent on the Spirit, and finally be a man of deep prayer and courageous witness. I can want to do all those good things, but wanting - and even trying hard! - is insufficient (or else we’d all be the best versions of ourselves all the time!). I need more than good intentions and resolutions; I need a process and pathway for real growth and change that leads to me becoming a new kind of person, from the inside out. So what does that look like?! Over the month of January, we’ll answer that question from one of my favorite texts (2 Peter 1.3-11), and hear stories from people experiencing the kind of change that only Jesus and his grace make possible.
The Christian Story - the good news about Jesus - uniquely involves thinking, doing, and feeling. Faith involves our whole person, and is never just mental assent to doctrinal truths or just a set of practices or morals for life. Real Faith moves the soul and requires emotional engagement - we feel its truth, often before we even fully understand it. This is particularly true when we focus on Advent, the arrival of Jesus into our busted up world as a baby some 2000 years ago. Why would God come into the world? What is he doing by writing himself into the story, putting on the weaknesses of human flesh, and dwelling among us? Nothing less than a total remaking of the world, putting all things to right, and ruling and reigning in justice and peace forevermore! This week we explore the emotion of Hope, and how the story of Jesus give the kind of hope we really need.
Full-bodied faith is both intellectual and emotional, enlightening the mind and stirring the affections of the heart. This Advent we’re exploring the emotions of faith, looking at how the movements of God’s Story - Creation, Fall, Redemption - stir our hearts to feel deeply wonder, heartbreak, and hope. This week we look at the emotion of heartbreak, considering how the pain and strain of our lives, our relationships, and our world brings about a deep and abiding sorrow. What do you do with your own heartbreak? Do you minimize it? Look for someone or something to blame? Or do you just check out of reality, finding ways to numb and avoid really feeling anything? Advent invites us to feel deeply the sorrow of the world, and to own our responsibility in it, while also looking for rescue beyond us. Jesus came to save us from our sins and to be God with us, the perfect solution to the heartbreak we all deeply feel.
We’ve covered a lot of Biblical ground over the fall, tracing the Story of Redemption from Creation to New Creation every single week, and considering how we tell that Story in word and deed in everyday ways. For Advent, we’re going to slow way down, cover less content, and instead engage the emotional landscape of faith. What does faith in God’s Story feel like? What emotions does the Biblical storyline - Creation, Fall, and Redemption - invite us to discover? The Gospel Story is both intellectually credible and emotionally satisfying, making sense of our lived experience as humans. Over the month of December, I want to invite you to feel deeply the wonder of Creation, the heartbreak of the Fall, and the hope of Redemption. In a season when we’re all more prone to numbing and checking out, Advent 2020 invites us to press in, to fight the malaise, and to connect with God and one another in meaningful ways. This week, we’ll explore Mary’s Song in Luke 1.46-55 as we talk about the power of Wonder.
We end our Everyday Rhythms series this week, remembering both the cosmic and personal nature of God’s Story. On one hand, God’s Story is about God: from beginning to end, the Story is about the goodness of his creation, all he has lost through human rebellion, and his ongoing work to heal and restore the world, culminating in the incarnation, substitution, and resurrection of Jesus. On the other hand, God’s Story is about us: He created humanity so he could sharing his love and joy and glory with us, and though we’ve rebelled and run from him, he’s gracious pursued and rescued us, at the cost of his own Son. And because both of those are True, we’re not wrapped up into God’s Story, sent to tell our own stories of rescue as a way of demonstrating and proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus. In Galatians 1.11-24, Paul recounts exactly what happened to him when Jesus rescued him, how the script of his story was flipped, and how he was wrapped up into God’s Story.
While there are many reasons most average Christians don’t live missionary lives, there’s really only one main reason: we’re not happy enough! Seriously. If we could for a moment keep the Story of the Gospel in front of our eyes, the ridiculously good news of all that Jesus is and has done for sinners like us, lost and dead and alone, we’d have a hard time containing the joy! In Luke 15 Jesus tells 3 stories to illustrate the heart of God for those who need rescue, the extravagant lengths to which God has gone to seek out and find the lost, and the joy that God has at finding his lost ones and bringing them home. And he urges us to join in the party of grace, marveling at the goodness of God in his rescuing pursuit and calling us to share his joy in everyday mission!
For the Jews of Jesus’ day, there was nothing that set them apart from the secular culture quite like observance of the Sabbath - it was one of the key marks that they belonged to God as his special, chosen people. Unfortunately, they’d turned God’s good gift of rest into a ton of work, adding 39 additional rules and regulations to the command, making it all but impossible to keep, especially for the most vulnerable people. Jesus confronts their religiosity, removing the burden of the Sabbath and restoring its true nature. Most shockingly, Jesus claims that he alone defines the meaning and purpose of the Sabbath, stating that his mission is to give real, true rest. We join the mission of Jesus by learning to live in the unforced rhythms of work and rest and inviting others to join us.
What images come to mind when you think of missionaries? If Jesus is our model for what it means to be a missionary, then one image that ought to come to mind is a long, slow, shared meal. Jesus was actually accused of being a glutton and a drunkard because he ate so many meals, and often with notorious outsiders and sinners. From the very beginning of the Story, eating has a central place: Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating; God rescued his people from slavery by way of a meal; much of God’s promises and blessing revolved around abundant food; and many of the images of God’s final salvation are cast in terms of rich food and good wine. And when we get to the end of the Story in Revelation, we see that God is inviting us to an eternal marriage feast, where we’ll enjoy God and his good gifts forever. For followers of Jesus sent into the world as witnesses, some of the simplest and yet most powerful missionary work we can practice is to share meals, turning strangers into neighbors and neighbors into spiritual family.
From the “In the Beginning” of Genesis, God’s purpose and character has always been the same. He is a generously good God who loves the world and His creation and has begun a story that will bless and remake it. God is looking for people to partner with Him to trust the story and to bless the world. And He has done everything in Christ to be able to include us in this family and in this mission to generously bless the world. Our job is to trust in this person, Jesus, the rescuer of the story and our redeemer, and to then take on His image, being filled with His Spirit, and allow Him to bless the world through us.
In a season of so much uncertainty, we’re leaning into that which is certain: Jesus is Lord, and we are his witnesses. He was sent into the world; crucified for sin but raised to new life; the firstborn of the new creation; and is now exalted at the right hand of God Almighty. The church is his blood-bought family, rescued from sin and death and wrapped up into his mission to restore all things. To be a disciple is to be sent as Jesus was, to join his mission as a witness in word and deed. This week we look at Acts 2, the birth of the church, when Jesus filled his people with his Spirit to empower their witness in the world. Jesus is still empowering his people to be his witnesses by his Spirit, and the promise of the Spirit is just as available to us today as it was to his first disciples 2000 years ago.
Over October and November, we’re walking through a new series exploring both the Story of Mission in the Bible and the (crazy!) invitation Jesus gives to us in John 20.21: “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” That's wild! The gospel is the news of the cosmic redemption of all things in and through Jesus, the Son of God who came to deal with Sin, to restore us to God, and to open the way to the Presence of God now, and eventually forever in a renewed world. And just as the Father sent the Son into the world to accomplish salvation, the Son now sends us (in the power of the Spirit!) to announce his salvation to the world and to call the world to repent and believe, to turn from false gods, empty hopes, and vain promises and to trust in the Son who is the once and future King of the world! We've been commissioned by the King, sent to bring the good news into our neighborhoods and relational networks, to embody, announce, and demonstrate the good news. Each Sunday we’ll unpack the various "missionary" themes of the Bible, seeing how God has been on mission from the beginning of time! And we’ll bring all that down to earth in really simple, practical 'rhythms' for life, because being a Spirit-empowered missionary is the everyday call of ordinary disciples.
The Christian life is characterized by 3 fundamental priorities - being with Jesus in a transformational way, being connected with his people in a real-life, and following Jesus into the world as disciple-makers, from our neighborhoods to the nations. Every disciple of Jesus is called to these priorities, though we have a great deal of freedom to discern how to live them. As we conclude our Trellis series, we’re summing up these priorities, looking at how Jesus empowers us to be about his purposes in all of life. We’ll dig into our Trellis document, and offer practical suggestions for creatively living as disciples in the coming season.
We’re concluding our September series, looking at our priories - gospel formation, life in community, and everyday disciple-making mission - in John 15. In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his coming departure, and his main theme is the continuation of his mission and ministry through them. Jesus says that all who believe in him will do his works, and that he will give the Spirit to empower believers to fulfill the mission. In John 15, he commands the disciples to do the Father’s business, the same work they saw him doing. He promises to make them fruitful as they go about this mission, and that he will assist them by the Spirit and prayer. Ultimately, they will be fruitful in this mission because Jesus will make them so. Every disciple of Jesus is called to be a disciple-maker, and the church is called to be a disciple-making community.
- Soma is strong in our gospel-centeredness and a in our practice of community, but we’re weaker in mission. To what degree would you say that is true for you personally? Can you help us grow in this area?
- Who has God given you favor with in this season? What are a few simple next steps for deepening relationship and having gospel conversations?
- Using John 15.16 as a promise, ask the Father to soften hearts, create opportunities, and draw your neighbors and friends to himself, using us as he desires.
In John 13, Jesus washes his disciples' feet, a visceral picture of his servant-hearted, sacrificial love for them. In John 15, he tells his disciples to love one another in the same way he has loved them, a direct reference to his foot-washing in John 13. For Jesus, there is no such thing as being a disciple without being deeply connected to a community of disciples. The foot-washing imagery tells us that real Christian community is messy, intimate, mutual, and redemptive. It cannot be done from a distance, cannot be a product of our imagination, and cannot be done in our own power. Only as we come to Jesus as needy sinners - in full acknowledgment of the stinky mess of our own feet! - can we know his love in a way that frees us to build life-giving community together.
Over the month of September, we’re digging deep into John 15, exploring Jesus’ imagery of the Vine and Branches, and considering how we’ll live our 3 Biblical Priorities - Gospel Formation, Life in Community, and Everyday Disciple-Making Mission. This week we’re looking at Gospel Formation and unpacking what Jesus meant when he told his disciples “Abide in me, and I in you.” Jesus says abiding means having our lives shaped by his words, his love, and his commandments. Abiding means we allow his words and teaching to shape our vision of life, and we trust his ways. We also learn to believe and receive the love he has for us, allowing all that is ours in him to fill and delight us. But abiding also means we submit to Jesus, surrendering and obeying him, especially when his ways contradict our own. The end result of this kind of abiding is the joy of Jesus being in us and filling our lives - Jesus calls us to abide because he wants our joy to be full!
In John 14-16, Jesus is preparing his disciples to carry on his ministry after he is gone. In the middle of all that, he gives them a simple image to describe exactly how he envisions them becoming fruitful in their mission. Jesus is the True Vine, the source of love, life, and joy. The Father is the Vine Dresser, pruning for fruitfulness and cutting off dead wood. And the disciples are branches, fragile offshoots, wholly dependent on the vine but surprising in their capacity for fruitfulness. Over the month of September, we're digging into this rich metaphor, exploring the kind of fruitfulness Jesus promises to create in us and what our role is in that process.
Discussion: 1. Read John 15.1-17. Explore the metaphor of the Vine and Branches. What is Jesus emphasizing? 2. Has this been a season of fruitfulness for you? Why or why not? 3. Are there any current habits or practices that are helping you to be with Jesus, his people, and on his mission?
John concludes his great argument on Jesus as our God Savior of the World. There is a detail he wants to wrap up with Peter, and in doing so Jesus shows us that He uses restored sinners to serve his people and mission.
While Pontius Pilate is seemingly putting Jesus on trial, really, Jesus is confronting Pilate with the same question that He asks all of us, "Who do you think I am?" and Pilate puts his answer on the cross.
Jesus’ movement is really gaining momentum. Everywhere he goes people are being healed and changed by him. His following is regularly increasing. In what seems like the most exciting climb to the top, Jesus takes a dramatic turn toward Jerusalem with the cross in mind. His friend Lazarus is sick and dying, but instead of hurrying to help, Jesus delays, allowing time for Lazarus to die and many Jews from Jerusalem to show up to comfort and mourn with Lazarus’ sisters. With a crowd to see, Jesus gives truth to Martha, life to Lazarus, a sign to the Jews, and the ministry of tears to Mary. He always gives what is needed, although oftentimes it is shocking to the recipient and the onlooker. If we are willing to receive him and truly believe, it changes everything!
Not only does John 9 record one of the most vivid stories of Jesus’ power and purpose, and it might be one of the more hilarious stories in the bible. Jesus heals a man born blind, which not only transforms his life but also sets up a series of ridiculous interactions and collisions with his neighbors, family, and the religious authorities. Jesus is arguably the most compelling and important person in human history - and simultaneously the most divisive. His claim is that he is the light of the world, the key to spiritual reality, and the one to whom all people must give total allegiance. For people on the outside, broken by sin and suffering, without access to power or privilege, Jesus brings light and life. But for those in positions of power and authority, for those wanting to remain in control and unwilling to bend their knee to him, Jesus brings judgment. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.
Jesus feeds the masses food miraculously and then switches the topic on them and tells them there is much more food than for the belly. He is the Bread of Life we are to feast on.
John 5 begins with a simple story of healing: Jesus finds a man who has been lame for 38 years, and gives him the gift of wellness, even though the man shows no sign of genuine faith. The healing, however, becomes the catalyst for collision between Jesus and the religious leaders, and the lame man becomes a living picture of the inability of religion to bring life. Just as the lame man could not heal himself, so the religious leaders cannot through their diligent efforts find real spiritual rest or fullness of life. Jesus has come to give life, but we must first give up on our own efforts, admit our inability, and come to him empty-handed - which is easier said than done!
Jesus uses an officials desire to have his son healed in order to meet the true need of his soul.
Jesus strategically travels through Samaria to find a lone Samaritan woman at an isolated well. Their small talk quickly moves from physical thirst to shameful sins and deep desires. Jesus unflinchingly dismantles her sin, as he did Nicodemus’ self-righteousness, in order to heal her heart, call her into his Kingdom, and at the same time sets the record straight in regards to locations and cultural preferences for worship. This woman, the bad samaritan, is paradoxically sought out by Jesus and becomes one of the first evangelists, leading many Samaritans to proclaim Jesus as Savior of the World.
John 2.23-25 tells us that Jesus “knew what was in man” and therefore he didn’t “entrust himself to them.” Jesus’ encounters over the next few chapters - Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, a Gentile official, the lame man at Bethesda - all make clear Jesus’ penetrating insight into human motivations. In John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, comes to Jesus at night, and gets his world flipped upside down. Jesus challenges his narrow understanding of God’s kingdom, reveals the evil of his religious striving, and proclaims a way of salvation so simple that it utterly baffles Nicodemus. But it is in this context of rebuke and challenge that Jesus gives us the most timeless summation of his mission: In deep affection for the world, God gave his Son, opening the kingdom of God for all who believe, now and forevermore. How will we respond?
John continues to paint a picture of the extraordinary and unpredictable ministry of the Messiah. Jesus lived most of his life in a place of poor reputation, quiet until he steps into focus, calls some unlikely disciples, and begins to minister in unconventional ways in offbeat places. In our text this week, Jesus gives a small-town wedding a miraculous abundance of really good wine and in a fit or holy zeal cleanses the temple of an unjust marketplace. He sets the tone for his ministry & kingdom: finding the lost and disrupting the religious, offering belief in his name to everyone without partiality, putting his glory on display for the excluded.
John begins his eyewitness account of the life and ministry of Jesus with a massive claim: in Jesus of Nazareth, the uncreated Creator, the God who formed all things and holds them together, showed the world what he is really like. It is a massive claim! And his first move, his first step toward revealing himself, is to gather a group of followers - unlikely and unpromising! - and invite them to “come and see” who he is and what he came to do. Here is a basic description of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus: to submit to him, learn who he is, and believe what he came to do, together.
What is the object of our belief? Is it the same as the readers of John? How do we grow the weight of our belief? John presents us with an object of belief that is different than we currently have. If our belief is in this God that is presented here, we will get to watch our lives and world change.
As we wrap up our 5-part series on having a sustained hope in hard times, we look at Habakkuk's resolve to rejoice in the Lord, come what may. Hope isn't something we accidentally fall into; it must be fought for and cultivated. This is especially true of our 5th key to hope, rejoicing. In the bible, joy is not an emotion that comes and goes based on circumstances; it is a moral imperative, a command we must obey in all circumstances. How can we fight for hope-filled joy when life is hard?
As we continue to move through this time of uncertainty, filled with many reasons for sorrow and despair, we're looking to the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk for keys on how to live with hope. In chapter 3, Habakkuk crafts a poetic prayer which he intends for corporate worship. In worship we recount God's faithfulness in the past and his power to save his people, and we bring it into our current moment. Key 4 to hope in hard times is worshiping - remembering, singing, and praying.
We have found ourselves in a season of uncertainty, and it is difficult to discern what is ahead of us in the coming weeks - we could be in a season of hardships of various capacities for some time (or not!). So we're looking at Habakkuk and asking, How can we have hope in these hard times? After voicing his complaints to God, and then waiting on him in silence, Habakkuk hears God speak. God sees the evil of the world, and he is fully intent on bringing justice, renewing the world, and restoring all that has been lost, and these words are meant to reorient us to God's sovereignty over the unfolding of history. And though all this may not happen for some time, we are called to trust God's promise, turn from our idols, and live by faith. The third key to Hope in Hard Times is Anchoring - putting our hope fully in God and his Story of Justice and Glory.
After laying his complaints before God, Habakkuk grows quiet. He's not satisfied with God's answer, but he's not using that as an excuse to give up on God. Instead, he chooses to continue to seek God, carving out time and space to wait on God, listen for him to speak, and linger in his presence. Key to Hope #2 is to learn to Wait on God, shifting attention away from our circumstances and uncertainties to the God who is both present and speaking.
Before we move to Habakkuk 2, we're pausing for a morning of lament. Lament is a biblical category of prayer which acknowledges the distance between what God intended the world to be and what it is now, pleading with God to intervene. The classic formulation of lament is, "How long, O Lord," and we see Habakkuk doing this in chapter 1. In light of a number of current injustices in our nation and the way Covid-19 is exacerbating them, we join with the faithful saints throughout the ages and across the globe in praying, "How long, O Lord?!"
Hope is about having solid ground to stand on when your world is crumbling. Hope is what gives us strength to weather the storms, an inner sturdiness that acts as an anchor for our soul. What we need in hard times is a true hope, a real hope - not wishful thinking or blind faith - but real, solid, sturdy hope. Ironically, the first Key to Hope in Hard Times is Questioning God, learning to express the difficulties, trials, and hardships, and wrestling with the God of grace.
animation in this video is from "Overview: Habakkuk", copyright 2016 by BibleProject and is visible at www.bibleproject.com.
One of the questions that have driven us as a church for years is this: If we can’t do all the formal church things - services, sermons, events, classes - would our people still know how to be the church? We’ve worked to equip, train and live into this for the last 15 years, and now we have an incredible opportunity to put into practice all that we have learned! You are gospel-formed people, able to be steady and grounded in the midst of uncertain times; you are already being the church, connected in life-shaping relationships, living as a family of servants and missionaries; and you are equipped to be disciple-makers in the everyday stuff of life. Now is the time to be the church, and we’re pivoting away from Planted in order to call, equip, and release you to the opportunity this pandemic has created. We’ll return to Planted, fundraising, and facilities when the time is right; for now, let’s put our time, talent, and treasure into being the church of Jesus!
Over the next 2 years, we’re hoping to raise $1 million above our regular budget for the vision of Planted. That’s a wild and audacious goal, and we’re asking the whole Soma family to participate. But to be honest, fundraising is a really strange part of ministry, and can get really confusing for everyone involved. In this section we see Paul trying to walk a fine line as he raises funds for the ministry need in Jerusalem. While it is necessary for him to share the need and equip the Corinthians for financial generosity, he doesn’t want to manipulate or coerce them, as that would entirely miss the point. He really believes that generosity is a result of genuine love for Jesus, echoing Jesus’ words about how what we do with our treasure reveals the state of our hearts. Once we have the right heart motivations in place, we’re ready to start taking practical steps toward greater generosity. Joyful generosity involves looking at our abundance, planning proactively so we are ready to give willingly and freely as opportunities arise.
After 15 fruitful years of being a family on mission, we’re ready to make a faith-filled journey toward permanent facilities. Our goal is to lean into being a long-term disciple-making presence in our region and beyond, and so we’re dreaming together and raising the funds we need to make it happen. To that end, we’re asking the Soma family to spend a month considering the biblical teaching on generosity and to make a 2-year financial commitment to the vision of Planted. Our aim is to grow into sacrificial and joyful generosity, rooted in personal experience of the sacrificial generosity of Jesus Christ. Without deep knowledge of his work for you - all he gave up on your behalf, and all you’ve been given in him - living a life of generosity will never make any sense. Paul urges us to reflect on the grace of Jesus until we’re transformed, leading to a radical, sacrificial, and joyful lifestyle of generosity.
Over the month of February, we're encouraging the whole church to take stock of their current growth as disciples and make a plan to lean in to Jesus, to community, and to being equipped in 2020 as a disciple-maker. By making simple goals around 4 key practices - Gather, Go, Grow, and Give - you can lean toward maturity in Christ. This week, we look at our second biblical practice, Go, considering how we are engaging with community and everyday ministry. In Philippians 1.27-30, Paul encourages the church to put the gospel on display in their inward-facing unity around Jesus and their outward-facing mission for Jesus.
This Sunday we’re launching a short series called “Next Steps,” designed to help us all think through where we’re at with Jesus and what He's calling us to in 2020. Our Priorities as a church are clear - gospel formation, life in community, and everyday mission - and we’re committed to orienting our lives around them. But how we actually do that can sometimes be a little muddier. So, over the coming weeks, we’re going to walk through 4 Practices that help us live our Priorities. This Sunday we’ll talk about Gather, looking at why we meet on Sundays, what participation looks like, and how you can use your gifts in the context of the church at worship.
We’re wrapping up our Lord’s Prayer series this Sunday, and we’re commissioning Joel & Estie Parris and the Doxa Church team. Joel and Steve walk us through an overview of where we’ve been in this prayer and create some space for us to practice praying together. In addition, we’ll learn about the Lord’s Prayer Doxology (‘Yours is the kingdom…”). While it isn’t original to the prayer, it has both biblical and historical validity, and it helps us end in confident praise and eager anticipation of the final restoration of all things. God is going to fill this world with his glory and kingdom, forever and ever - and that’s why we plant churches (cue the Doxa team…!).
Like a ship set to sea with no certainty of easy sailing, we move through life with the cruel reality of pain and difficulty. We need guidance and often require deliverance. This is not so much a prayer for safety and security but is instead a prayer for the alignment of God’s purposes in our experiences. This petition is an appeal for God to use the pain of life to build something beautiful, rather than let evil destroy us. It is a prayer of submission to God’s plan, come what may. Our journey may include crashing through treacherous waves but we pray he will deliver us to the still waters of deep harbors.
Does prayer work? Most people can point to places in their life where they've felt like prayer doesn't work - things we've asked for, prayed diligently about, and pleaded with God to do have not happened. What do we make of that? In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus urges us to make our needs known (give us this day!), but also shows us where personal requests fit in the larger work of prayer. We're not making requests of a genie in a bottle but of our good and trustworthy Father, and expressing our needs comes after we've aligned ourselves with his kingdom and will. The flow of the prayer is intentional, and as we learn to follow it we'll see that indeed prayer always works!
This week we continue in our series on the Lord's prayer. This powerful prayer, modeled by Jesus to his disciples instructs us on how to pray. We are invited to pray to our "Heavenly Father" as we are the sons and daughters of the king. We also are reminded that God is "hallowed" and that there is none that compares to him in all the earth. We will consider the question of whether or not we truly long for the Kingdom of God to come to earth. Together we will spend time considering what the kingdom is about, what our part is in bringing the kingdom, and lastly what does it look like when the kingdom of God breaks into our world.
The Lord's Prayer is, simultaneously, the simplest form of prayer and the deepest expression of prayer's meaning. Simple enough for a child to memorize, the prayer gives us the basic content of every true Christian prayer. Over the month of January, we'll unpack what Jesus means by this prayer, practice it alone and together, and lean toward becoming a praying church. This week we look at 2 pathologies of prayer (religious and pagan praying) before unpacking the first phrase of the prayer itself. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" tells us both with whom and to whom we pray, as well as directing us toward the real hope of all Christian praying. Check out this link and join us for a week of prayer: somaspokane.org/prayer
The holidays are prone to sentimentalism, that warm fuzzy feeling that lit trees, cute family Christmas cards, and stockings hung by crackling fires brings us. And because the Christmas story is so familiar, it is really hard for it to be for us anything more than emotional warmth. But the first Christmas was not sentimental in the least: an unwed teen with an unplanned pregnancy gave birth in a barn, poor and rejected and alone, with nothing but strips of cloth and a manger for her newborn. And in that barn 2000 years ago God broke into our world to do something that forever changed the course of history and ushered in a whole new possibility between men and God: Good news for all people, in and through Jesus, the Savior, Anointed King, and Sovereign Lord!
The holiday season has a very particular set of songs and melodies, and they range from some of the richest theology to some of the most banal sentimentalities. One minute we're singing "born that men no more may die," and the next minute we're singing "I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause." Huh? Mary, the mother of Jesus, wrote the first ever Christmas song, and in it she declares how her soul was set ablaze by the message of Christmas. As we look at her song, we'll see how the Christmas message ought to lead us all to lasting joy.
Last week we looked at changing our hopes from what our culture promises and surrounds us with, to Emmanuel, God with us, and to Jesus, Our God saves. This week we will continue handling the holidays and the magic of Christmas by looking for more permanent magic. In Luke 1:26-33, Gabriel the angel comes and announces the birth of the long awaited Messiah, the Eternal King. The conclusion of our passage is to have our practices (celebrations) celebrate this Eternal King and to seek His presence.
We come into Thanksgiving and then into Christmas with high hopes - for depth of connection with our loved ones, to give or receive gifts that mean something, to feel that life isn’t just mundane and hard all the time. And while we sometimes catch glimpses of all that (thank God!) the reality is that “the holidays” rarely feel very holy, our gatherings don’t quite bring the joy for which we long, and (if we’re honest) we’re still the same old schmucks we were last year (ok, maybe that’s just me!). In any regard, whether you’re a Grinch or a Cindy Lou Who, handling the holidays is no easy feat. So, all December we’re looking at the songs and stories of the very first Christmas, and returning again to the Savior King who brings the holy into the everyday.
God’s dream for the world is that every nook and cranny of His creation would know and enjoy Him forever. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2.14). To that end, we’re calling and equipping every disciple to our biblical Priorities of Gospel Formation, Life In Community, and Everyday Mission. In our wrap-up to this series, we look at 4 Key Practices - Gather, Go, Grow, and Give - and how they help us get our Priorities to the ground. While we don’t have membership, committing together to these 4 Practices is how we partner for the sake of the Gospel in our church, region, and the world.
- Read Titus 2.11-15. What has struck you most about this text as we’ve soaked in it over the last 10 weeks?
- Take some time to review where we’ve been in Basics. Consider the riches of the Gospel and all that is ours in Jesus. Remember your baptism into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and reacquaint yourself with what it means to be part of a Family of Servants and Missionaries. And consider the call of Jesus into everyday mission, to whom He has sent you and what He has called you to do. What has most impacted you about this series?
- Read over the 4 Practices, and describe how you’re living it out in this season. Please don’t see this as the new law or expectation; these are simply guidelines or best practices, designed to help you think and pray about what faithfulness in this season looks like. It should be unique to you, your season, your family, and your strengths and liabilities. If you need more help dialing it in, let me know!
- To end our Basics series, we’re taking a special offering for church planting. Church planting is one of the best ways to reach new people with the Gospel, and we are committed to planting churches locally and globally. How is the Spirit leading you to give? Every dollar of this special offering will go directly to church planting right here in the Inland Northwest! somaspokane.org/give
The focus of Everyday Mission is to make disciples who can make disciples. Jesus is the risen King and Lord of history, and in His final words to His disciples, He commands them to carry on His central ministry - forming communities of discipleship around Him, His message and His mission. Do our everyday priorities and practices reflect a life of disciple-making mission?
- Read Matthew 28.16-20, commonly known as The Great Commission. What strikes you about this text? If you put yourselves in the shoes of the disciples, what do you think would be most striking about this scene?
- The book of Acts tells the story of these first disciples obeying the Great Commission. What did they go and do? How did the Spirit work? What were some of their priorities and practices?
- If you were to take personal responsibility for the Great Commission, and arrange your life around it, what might need to change? What would you do more, and what would you do less? What would you start doing today?
- If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can check out the Missional Community Life Workshop Videos Part 1 & 2 here: https://subspla.sh/zxkqp7t and https://subspla.sh/sbrjyvw
- For Kids & Youth: As parents, we have a profound discipling impact on our kids which is the purpose of our lives. We can tell them we love and trust Jesus, but if our life is about other things (like career, comfort, people’s approval, etc.) our kids will see the discrepancy. Ask your kids to evaluate what they think your life is about. Learn from them, celebrate and adjust as necessary!
Everyday Mission, Part 1 - Gospel Power The good news of the Gospel is the power of the Christian life, not just as the start but throughout the whole of life. The good news of Jesus' work brings ongoing transformation, day in and day out, as the Spirit permeates our lives with its truth. That power of the Gospel shapes us into a certain kind of people - a Family of Servants and Missionaries - called the Church, a Gospel people. It is through these people that Jesus is on mission in the world today, making disciples who can make disciples and planting churches that can plant churches.
- Take some time to review where we’ve been: Gospel Formation and Life In Community. What are the 3 aspects of the Gospel we’ve discussed? What are the Identities that shape our community?
- Re-read Titus 2.11-15, and pay special attention to what Paul says in v.14. What was the purpose for Jesus’ rescue mission? What does Paul say is the identity and the purpose of the Church?
- Consider this: the place where your passions and the needs of the world intersect is where God has called you to do His works. What opportunities for good works are right in front of you?
- If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video here: https://subspla.sh/j5hrj5q. In particular, here's a short clip to watch and discuss: The Purpose of the Gospel (27:30-30:00).
- For Kids & Youth: In what ways are you as a family engaging the brokenness of the world? What are some needs around you that you can meet as a family today? Help your kids see how the power of the Gospel and purpose of the Gospel connect!
Basics 8: Life in Community, Part 3 - We Are Missionaries
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was a great rescue operation in which God stepped into His rebel world and purchased the freedom of a people at great cost to Himself. Jesus has paid the price to free us from sin, self, and death, so we can live now as His people - the Church - in all of life. This week we look at how Jesus equips us as His people so He can continue His rescue operation through us, empowering us by His Holy Spirit to be Missionaries, sent into the world to share and show the good news.
- Read Acts 1.1-8, where Jesus promises the Spirit to make the disciples into witnesses (Missionaries!). What is Jesus promising His disciples?
- What has been your personal understanding and experience of the presence and power of the Spirit? How does your experience compare to what Jesus seems to be promising in Acts?
- With whom has Jesus given you favor? How would you live differently if you knew Jesus was going save them as you build relationship and share Gospel with them?
- If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video https://subspla.sh/brk5syh. In particular, here are 2 short clips to watch and discuss: Getting To Know the Spirit (3:50-5:45), or Our Missionary Identity (48:30-52:00)
- For Kids & Youth: Who has God given you favor with as a family? Consider your neighbors, sports teams, kids friends, etc. In what ways can you as a family prioritize relationship with them, invite them in, and learn more of their story? What aspects of the Gospel might be good news for them?
Titus 2.14 says the Church is the special, treasured possession of Jesus - a people rescued from sin, called into relationship, and sent into the world to carry on the mission of Jesus. This week we look at the Church as a people bought with a high price and called to be Servants of Jesus in all of life. Because Jesus has served us, giving His life as a ransom for many, our way of life as His disciples is to be marked by obeying Him, submitting to Him, expecting from Him, and relying on Him as we generously steward time, treasure, and talent in sacrificial service. For Discussion: 1. Read Mark 10.35-45, and answer the 4 Questions: Who is God? What has He done? Who are we? How should we live? 2. How does Jesus define greatness? What does He do with His own greatness and power, and in what ways does that contrast with our Western Culture? 3. Our way of life is to embody the self-sacrificing life of Jesus, generously stewarding time, talent, and treasure for His mission. As you think about those 3 categories, which is most difficult for you to give away? Why? How does the Gospel free you toward generosity? 4. For Kids & Youth: Practice generosity as a family this week. Look around your house, asking your kids to identify what God has given you (could be toys, food, kitchen table, clothes, money, etc.). Decide together what you can give away, and to whom. If you give to the Church or to other ministries, discuss with your kids what you give and why, showing them what joyful stewardship looks like!
Basics 6: Life in Community, Part 1 - We Are Family The church is a people who, having been rescued by Jesus, now belong to Him as His treasured possession. When we repent and believe the Gospel, we are born again, and we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This means we are now God's people, brought into relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit. This week, we explore our relationship to the Father's, what it means to be His adopted children, and how we can learn to love one another as His Family. For Reflection or Discussion: 1. Read Galatians 4.1-7. 2. What does it look like when you're living out of your orphan identity? What does it look like when you're living out of your adopted identity? See page 50 in your Basics manual for reference. 3. How does God's triunity (3 persons in one) influence your understanding of community? Think: God is love and exists in perfect unity. This reveals God's heart and idea of the world and community. Relationship is not an option, it's who we are. 4. As individuals, think about this: how would your relationships change if Jesus, rather than personal interests, was the glue? What would be easier and what would be more difficult? 5. If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video here: https://subspla.sh/7r2cntb. In particular, here are 2 short clips to watch and discuss: 1) 6:30-10:00 The Gospel Flow; and 2) 25:00-40:00 Slaves or Sons 6. For Kids & Youth: Ask your kids what they think the Bible means when it says we're adopted? If we have been adopted into God's family, how do we help other people know that they are a part of God's family?
Over the last 3 weeks, we've looked at the past, present, and future tenses of salvation: We have been saved from the penalty of sin (past), are being saved from the power of sin (present), and will be saved from the presence of sin (future). All 3 have massive implications for us as followers of Jesus, and taken together can transform our lives. But how does that transformation happen? This week we explore Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3.14-21, where he asks the Spirit to bring the truth and power of God's love for us in Christ deep into our hearts. We look at how to welcome this process and hear stories of how people in our church family are experiencing the Gospel's power today. Questions for Review: 1. Read Ephesians 3.14-21. The focus of Paul’s prayer is the Spirit’s work to drive the love of God in Jesus into our hearts. Why is the Bible ruthlessly “heart” focused when it comes to real growth and change? What happens if we ignore, minimize, or deny the central role of the heart? 2. What is one area of living (thoughts, words, or actions) that you’d like to see change? What is the root or heart issue involved (think: what am I believing, desiring, or trusting)? 3. What aspect of the Gospel, if it was “known beyond knowledge,” would fill you with the fullness of God and set you free? 4. If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the Gospel Formation Workshop videos here: (Part 1) https://subspla.sh/tzq655p (Part 2) https://subspla.sh/m2fnskt 5. For Kids & Youth: Discuss with your kids why the focus of change is the heart (consider Luke 6.43-45). As much as we want our kids to obey us and God, we are ultimately hoping God will grab ahold of their hearts and desires, and lead them into newness of life. Pray with your kids, asking the Spirit to fill our hearts with the love of God!
Being a follower of Jesus means understanding all that He is and has done for us, and allowing that news to be worked deep into our hearts so that our whole lives are shaped by Him. We use the term "Gospel Formation" to describe the process of being conformed to Jesus and His ways with our mind, heart and life. This week, we're looking at how the end of the Story - Jesus' return as the rightful King of the World - in which He makes all things new - shapes us today. Through Jesus, we have been saved from the penalty of sin (past), and we are being saved from the power of sin (present). When Jesus returns, we will be saved from the presence of sin (future), transformed into full Christlikeness, and enjoying God forever in this world remade and restored.
- Read Titus 2.11-15. This is the text we’ll be in for the whole Basics series. Notice that v.11 is Salvation Past Tense, v.12 is Present, and v.13 is Future. What has happened? What is still happening? What will happen some day?
- When you think of ‘heaven,’ what comes to mind? What images dominate your mind regarding God’s end goal?
- Read Romans 8.16-32, a densely packed exploration of what is yet to come. What is promised personally for those in Christ, and how ought that shape our living? What is promised for all of creation, and how ought that shape our living?
- If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video https://subspla.sh/8wm8jjc. In particular, here are 2 short clips to watch and discuss: 1) 33:30-35:30 - The Weight of Glory or 2) 48:00-50:00 - Thinking Rightly About The Next World
- Each week, we’ll be giving some ideas for how to engage kids and youth with the basics content. This week, explain the future tense of the Gospel to your kids. What will Jesus do for us personally when He returns? How is that good news for us? And what will He do for all of creation? How does that shape how we live in this world now?
The Gospel is the central message of Christianity, the good news that functions as a hub on the wheel of everything Christianity is. All that is involved in being a follower of Jesus is directly linked to understanding, believing, and living in light of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, ascension, and soon return! Last week, we unpacked the first of 3 statements regarding the power of the Gospel for our personal lives: We have been saved from the penalty of sin by the life and death of Jesus. We celebrated the good news of gracious acceptance with God, once and for all, knowing Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness, so that God treats us as if we perfectly obeyed! This week, we look at the ongoing power of the Gospel: We are being saved from the power of sin through the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Jesus rose victorious over death, disarming sin's power, and now sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. And, He has sent the Holy Spirit to empower our lives toward maturity. We mature into holiness - conformity to Jesus - by grace and the work of the Spirit.
Read Titus 2.11-15. This is the text we’ll be in for the whole Basics series.
Questions for Discussion: 1. Recall the 3 Gospel Statements (Past, Present, and Future Tense). Review from last week the Past Tense statement. What does each mean? With which of these - past, present, future - are you least familiar? How might a deeper understanding of that tense affect your life? 2. Re-read Titus 2.11-12. What life changes does Paul describe in the verses? What does real growth and change look like? Change can be hard. What resources do we have through Jesus’ resurrection and ascension? 3. Look at the list of the 4 Gs in p.26-27 of the handbook. Which are you most prone to forget? What are the results when you do? What changes when you are remembering these truths about God? 4. If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video here: https://subspla.sh/whsk5bh. In particular, here is a short clip to watch and discuss: 41:00-42:00 minutes - Embracing the Process. 5. Each week, we’ll be giving some ideas for how to engage kids and youth with the Basics content. This week, explain the Present Tense of the Gospel to your kids. What has Jesus' resurrection and ascension done for us? What difference does that make when our kids disobey?
Basics is designed to equip the whole Church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world. Over the next 10 weeks, we're unpacking exactly what the Gospel is, what it means to be the Church together, and how to live the mission of Jesus in the everyday stuff of life. This week we look at Section 2: beginning to look at what it means to have our lives formed by the Gospel of Jesus. In particular, we'll talk about the good news of God's gracious acceptance; that is, that we have been saved from the penalty of sin through Jesus' life and death. The Christian life is built on the foundation of Jesus' atoning death and victorious resurrection, and results in a new status with God - not only are we forgiven through Jesus, but we're also declared righteous, given the perfect record of Jesus, and invited into a relationship of delight with our Creator that transforms every aspect of our lives.
- Read Titus 2.11-15. This is the text we’ll be in for the whole Basics series. Consider memorizing it as a community. How might you create space to be formed by this text together?
- Take a minute and try to speak the Gospel message to one another (or write it down if you’re using these questions alone). How would you articulate the core message of Christianity?
- Use the manual on page 16-17 to look at Romans 3. What is the bad news about human righteousness? What is the good news about the righteousness of God given through Jesus?
- Look at the lists of ways we Prove and Pretend (p.18-19). Where do you see yourself in the list? What difference does it make to believe that you are both forgiven and have Jesus’ perfect righteousness?
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If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video on our webpage here https://subspla.sh/437mgj7. In particular, here are 2 short clips to watch and discuss: Minutes 45:00-47:00 - God is Pleased With You Minutes 54:30-1:00:00 - The Growing Cross Diagram
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Each week, we’ll be giving some ideas for how to engage kids and youth with the basics content. This week, choose one way that the gospel speaks to a family relational challenge (for example, blaming, competing, or shaming). Ask kids how they see those things show up in your home. Explain to your kids why we don’t need to do those things because we wear Jesus’ perfect resume. There’s no need to blame, shame, or compete - we are all forgiven and loved through Jesus!
As a church, we're celebrating 15 years this fall, so we thought it a great time to revisit our core convictions. We're asking God to lead us into the next season of mission and ministry with stunning clarity. Our mission is to form whole- hearted disciples of Jesus in life-shaping relationships for everyday disciple-making. Basics is about what that means and how we intend to continue accomplishing the mission. This week, we start by unpacking the core message of Christianity: the Gospel or good news. What is the center of Christianity? What is it all about? And what does that mean for us?
Questions for Discussion:
- Read Titus 2.11-15. This is the text we’ll be in for the whole Basics series. Consider memorizing it as a community. How might you create space to be formed by this text together?
- Talk about the Basics series and the manual. What sort of commitment do you all want to make to grow through this series? What are you hoping to see happen in your life and community? How will you pursue that?
- Read p.8 in the manual together, and talk about what Jesus has done in his life, death, and resurrection. What of this sounds like good news to you? Why?
- Using the chart on p.10 of the Basics manual, talk through what you see in yourself. Do any of the ‘religious’ characteristics describe you? Which of the ‘gospel’ characteristics are most attractive to you? Where have you seen gospel take root and grow fruit in your life?
- If you’d like to dig more deeply into this week’s content, you can access the video on our webpage, somaspokane.org/basics. In particular, here are 2 clips to watch and discuss: 6:30-8:45 - The Solar System of Christianity 17:10-25:30 - What Has Jesus Accomplished?
- Each week, we’ll be giving some ideas for how to engage kids and youth with the basics content. For this week, creatively explain the image Lloyd-Jones uses to describe the difference between religion and the Gospel (p.6). Discuss how the people might respond to the generals versus how they might respond to the messengers. Help your kids make the connection to Jesus’ work on our behalf: How should we respond knowing Jesus has won the victory for us?!
This past Sunday, we looked back on all of 1 Corinthians and our theme of Strong Church. We've covered a lot of ground this year, and revisited Paul's opening words in 1 Corinthians 1.4-9, in order to summarize all we've learned through this series. Questions for Review: 1. What does Paul emphasize in the first 9 verses of his letter to the Corinthians? How does that compare or contrast to the rest of the letter? 2. Why do you think Paul starts his letter with so much emphasis on Jesus and all that the Corinthians have in Him? Is he just softening them for the blows they get in the rest of the letter? 3. Throughout the letter, at every point in which Paul gives correction, he does so with a clear connection back to Jesus and the themes of 1 Corinthians 1.1-9. What does this imply that he's trying to do in this letter? 4. Take some time to refresh yourself on the 5 sections of 1 Corinthians. What section was most striking to you this year? Where have you been most challenged or encouraged? How have you grown through this year-long series?
On Sunday, I gave the image of a person trying to stand on two different boats while going down a stream. One of the boats represents seeing Jesus as our Savior, His death and resurrection as our defining reality, and His returning as our hope. Paul’s focus through the book of Corinthians has been for them to redefine all of life through the work of Jesus, His death and resurrection; particularly, their thoughts, actions and hopes. The other boat that we try to stand on at the same time represents all the other things we quickly move to, to put our hope in and find our value in, that don’t last. These things are real and tangible but fleeting and shallow. What are the seductive false boats that frequently tempt you to put your time and belief into? Lastly, Paul leaves us with these directives: to fight with all the fight in us, to hold onto the boat that represents belief in the work of Jesus, to actively work out the love of Jesus, and to find a tribe to accomplish this fight and work with. Questions for discussion: 1. How can you intentionally hold onto, remember, and tell others the story of Jesus' work on the cross? 2. What are places you can step into to act on this love; particularly, in your family and in humanity where you see injustice? 3. Who is your tribe, your close-knit group that is going to fight and work alongside you until the day that Jesus returns?
In the words of Paul, “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.”
This passage, anchored in the rest of the letter, gets into the nitty-gritty about how the Gospel gets worked out in our everyday lives. The way we spend our money, the way we interact with those around us, what we do with our time, how we plan for the future; these are all very real parts of this life and are all very scared and significant. It is not just the programmed and religious things that are spiritual. It's because of what Jesus has accomplished, that all of life is a liturgy - everything is worship.
FOR REFLECTION: What are the mundane and ordinary things in your life that feel like they suck the life out of you? In what ways does it feel like you live a duel existence, with your spiritual life one reality and your earthly life another? What prevents you from viewing the mundane, the painful suffering, the challenges, and the beauty of this life as meaningful and sacred? What would change if, in the places you find yourself this week, you were compelled by the Spirit to view them as meaningful and sacred? Let the Gospel work its way into the nooks and crannies of your life; expounding justice, allowing God to use you to bring shalom and flourishing in your life as well as others.
I clearly see we are living in a time when it is apparent that our lives either declare the resurrection victory or we declare a false victory. As our country pursues the natural outcome of living outside of the presence of a necessary savior, God & king, we have the opportunity to be a unique people who are compassionate, serving, loving, and unswervingly convinced that Jesus did indeed need to die to pay for our sins, did rise from the dead, and will return to bring about our resurrection. Paul leads us to conclude that if we want to feel the victory that is ours we absolutely must be persistent about the truth of the resurrection until we pass out. We can't be seduced by the false victories that our flesh, the world, and Satan pose. We must work out Jesus’ truth with our actions. Only then will our lives not be filled with empty ("kenos") thoughts and activities.
Questions for working this out: 1. What are the channels of seducing ideas you need to eliminate? Where do you get false messages about what is good and worth living for? How can we eliminate and reduce the power of false victories in our lives? 2. What are the ways you can actively have your mind and body work out the truth? Where can you serve? Who can you serve? Refugees, children, homeless, neighbors, widows, etc. How can you have your time, money, energy, and resources declare that the resurrection happened and Jesus will come again to clothe us in imperishability and give us eternity?
When the truth we hold onto in our mind and the actions of our life align our heart begins to feel the victory.
The heart of the gospel is the death & resurrection of Jesus - His work in history to accomplish salvation by taking the penalty of sin and destroying that slave-master, death. If Jesus has been raised, Paul argues, so shall we. But what will that be like? What is "resurrection," and what does it mean for me? While much of that remains a mystery beyond our comprehension, we know 3 things for sure: we will have real flesh and bone bodies, those bodies will be recognizable but gloriously transformed, and all will be in and through Jesus.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Do you spend much time considering death and what it means? Would you say you lean more toward "fear" or "befriend" when you think of it? What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for how a Christian can view death? 2. Paul argues that in the resurrection there will be both continuity (we will have bodies) and discontinuity (they will be transformed). How does that shape our way of life today? 3. Consider Paul's list of contrasts between our current bodies and our future bodies in v.42-44. What sounds most like good news to you? And why?
Our passage this past Sunday made several powerful statements. If there is no resurrection then our faith is empty. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the substance of our faith, it is the hope that extends to our resurrection, and it is the invading of the new into the present evil age. What a beautiful picture! Jesus working tirelessly to destroy every evil dominion and ending with conquering all of death and at the end of time handing over the restored world to His Father.
Living with, and believing in, the resurrection of Jesus leaves us with the possibility to say “Now how can we live?” If the resurrection happened and Jesus came up out of the ground, we get eternity and to live in the now with different confidence and hope. So what are you going to try? Walkthrough your days with the past, present, and future of the gospel in the forefront of your minds and see what you notice and hear. Remember what Jesus did and promised regularly and then watch and listen as you encounter life’s challenges. “Inflate your tires” with the hope of eternal life and then see what path you get to ride.
The death and resurrection of Jesus has always been the plan of God. It was witnessed by many and is the power to a resurrected life for us. Make room in your day to replace some of the stories that occupy your thoughts and focus on the story of what Jesus has accomplished, is doing, and will yet one day do. This is called the gospel. This practice of remembering our full faith, laying aside the distracting stories and asking Jesus to teach us is epically life-altering.
Find time this week to create a liturgy of remembering the gospel that fits your character. God made you well. You are beautiful and unique and He has accomplished everything so you get to draw near to the creator of the universe and hear His voice. Search out each day this week how you can:
Fix your Filter: Ask God to show you all of the past, present, and future of the good news and what He has done, doing and will do. Do it in your Bible reading. Talk to God about it every time you are in a car. Take a walk and talk with him through as much of the good news as you can. Let him turn your attention to places of the gospel that I have said nothing about: emotions, sounds, images, promises, etc. Daily refocus yourself somehow to what God wants you to cling to. Learn to stop meditating on small things, rather meditate on the great and eternal story of God.
Use your Filter: Use what you are learning to process your day with. Pray for others with the truth of this story. Reframe how you engage your really hard moments or your dull moments with this story. Reframe your day by praying to God through the gospel.
Teach your Filter: Let yourself hear the gospel come out of your mouth. Let others hear the gospel come out of your mouth. “So we preach and so you believed” (1 Cor. 15:11). We would be much better off if we hear more people reminding us of the story we are actually living in. Our friends would be much better off if they hear the true story of what we are living in.
So, reframe your days with a liturgy of replacing time with small stories to refocus on the resurrection story. We will take time on Sunday to hear what God spoke through your available ears.
When the church comes together for worship, something really unique transpires. While we're called to be the church in the every day, making gospel-centered disciples in community, we're also commanded to gather regularly to worship God and build up one another. Paul gives needed clarity to this gathered worship setting, urging us to come ready to be used by the Spirit in order to strengthen and encourage one another. A Strong Church is empowered by the Spirit to use gifts in service of one another, eagerly pursuing the Spirit's leading while maintaining order and peace so that everyone flourishes.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 14:26-40. Paul is ending the section (chapters 11-14) on how the body of Christ gathers in ministry and worship. What themes have you seen in these chapters? What seems to be Paul’s overarching point? 2. What is the dual emphasis of v.26, and how ought it shape our gatherings? What is Paul hoping happens when we gather? 3. In what ways have you grown in clarity around who you are and how God has wired/gifted you for mission and ministry? How has that helped you? 4. What does obeying v.39 look like? Are we? How could we obey it together? 5. In v.36-38, Paul gives a word of warning designed to move the Corinthians toward greater humility. What does he say there, and why does it matter?
Paul summarizes his view of what really matters for the church’s gathered worship: pursue love for one another above all else, and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit in order to build one another up! We gather to worship God and to build, encourage, and strengthen one another, and we are to pursue gifts to that end.
Chapter 13 is both a beautiful celebration of love and a visceral gut-punch for the church. Paul writes this chapter as a rebuke to a church that is a mess: While the Corinthians were highly gifted, they lacked the kind of Spirit-wrought character that showed true evidence of conversion to Christ. Gifts, ministry, and service - when divorced from love - are of zero profit and do not evidence a true work of the Spirit. Paul is telling the church they must excel in character in a way that mirrors their strength of gifting or they are risk spiritual bankruptcy.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. What is your first impression of the passage? How have you typically heard or understood it? 2. What difference does it make to see the chapter as a challenge or rebuke to the Corinthians ways of relating? 3. Read the list of traits of love - what agape really is - ask the Spirit to bring clarity and conviction. What is the Spirit saying about your love? 4. What would you say your community and our Soma family is known for? Is this kind of character transformation happening among us? 5. Read 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, and be encouraged at what Jesus promises to do by his Spirit in his people. Pray our love would increase!
We are the body of Christ, unique and different, called to His mission, HIs purpose, and His presence and then irrigated by His Spirit. We have been called and saved into this great body and we get to serve God’s great rescue mission and we get to be fueled by the powerful Holy Spirit. Boy, that sounds like great news!
Over the next 5 weeks, we're digging into what exactly it means to be the body of Jesus, particularly in how the Spirit gifts and empowers us in ministry to one another and mission in the world. The primary evidence of the Spirit's work in our lives is a heart and life that declares 'Jesus is Lord,' and every true Christian is a Spirit-filled Christian. The Spirit equips each member of the body with gifts, as He determines is best, for the building up of the body in mission and ministry. Practically, this means the first step in the journey of understanding the Spirit and how he has gifted you is to begin engaging him directly, asking him to fill your heart and mind with the truth about Jesus and to equip you how he wills for the sake of the common good.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. When you gather with the church on Sundays or in your community, what sort of expectations or hopes do you have? What are you anticipating may happen? 2. What does Paul say is the key mark of a Spirit-filled and Spiritually-gifted person (v.1-3)? Why might he be saying this? What is he correcting at Corinth? 3. Paul says the Spirit gives various gifts, the Lord calls us to various ministries, and God gives us various levels of strength and impact (v.4-6). In what ways is such a God-centered view of spiritual gifts helpful for us? 4. As you read the list of gifts, which ones resonate with you (check the end of 1 Corinthians 12 or Romans 12 for other helpful lists)? Take some time in your community to highlight one another and the gifts you see in each other. 5. In light of all Paul is saying here, what ought to be our expectation when we gather together? In what ways can you take responsibility for your own gifts and ministry to that end?
Central to the gathering of the early church was the Love Feast or Lord's Supper, a time to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of the work of Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. The meal signifies the new covenant - God's new way of dealing with humanity through his Son - and it was meant to sustain a radically inclusive and just community, where all the world's ways of measuring worth and value were undermined and rejected by the scandal of grace. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we proclaim Jesus as our one Savior and shape a culture of justice and mercy.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 11.17-34, Paul’s challenging rebuke of the church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper. Notice he says, “It is not the Lord’s supper you eat,” highlighting just how far their practice is from Jesus’ intent. What are they doing wrong, according to v.17-22? 2. What does Paul highlight about the meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night he was betrayed (v.23-26)? What are the intentions of this shared meal of bread and wine? What does it proclaim? 3. What instructions does Paul give regarding how we’re to personally engage the Lord’s Supper (v.27-32)? 4. What instructions does Paul give regarding how we’re to engage the Lord’s Supper as a community (v.33-34)? 5. Partake of the Lord’s Supper when your community gathers this week, taking time to discuss either what Jesus has done or what we’re still longing for him to do. Allow time for confession, prayer, and/or words of encouragement to be spoken to one another.
For Mother’s Day, we had a panel of women speaking about motherhood in light of the gospel. The stories you’ll get to hear from these women are powerful pictures of why Jesus really is sufficient for all of life. Listen for both the joys and sorrows of these women’s stories, and hear how Jesus has been doing his redemption work in their lives in the context of desiring, losing, raising, and releasing children.
We're studying 1 Corinthians this year, exploring the theme of 'Strong Church' and looking at what it takes for Soma to become a long-term disciple-making presence in our region and beyond. A Strong Church is clear on the gospel message, lives as a counter-cultural community together, and is oriented toward serving the city and making disciples who can make disciples. On this unique Sunday, we look back at these themes and look forward to our Bloomsday Scattering on May 5th, a great opportunity to put into practice all we've been learning.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. You are the Church. As we gather or scatter. How will you use our Bloomsday Scattering to be the church with people in our city? 2. Gospel Saturation. In what ways have you/are you experiencing the goodness of God? How can you put that on display for those in our region? Who needs to experience God's glory? 3. The Good of the City. How are you praying for the good of Spokane? What are you doing to seek the flourishing of Spokane? 4. The mission of the Gospel. Who are you in relationship with? Who has God given you favor with? What aspect of the Gospel would be really good news for them?
- Easter challenges us to get honest.
- Easter secures us a perfect solution.
- Easter gives us newness of life.
As we end Strong Church Part 3, Paul sums up his directions on navigating the world as witnesses. Jesus has given us a clear mission - to make disciples who make disciples - and we're called to make that mission the organizing principle of our lives. Make your motive God's glory, your aim the good of your neighbor, and your heart tender toward those who do not know the grace of God in Jesus, and then live the life God has given you.
FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 10.23-11.1. Paul summarizes his directions for navigating in the world as witnesses: Aim to glorify God, seek to build up your neighbor, and look for opportunities to extend the message of grace. 2. God’s glory is about 3 things - his reality, his personal presence, and his beauty. Unpack what each aspect of his glory means. To what degree have you experienced God’s glory personally? Where are the “glory battlegrounds” in your life currently? 3. Seeking to build up your neighbor means having compassion that leads to action. What are some of the places where compassionate action is most needed in your context? Are there ways you and/or your community are or might begin to meet those needs? 4. Paul’s hope is that many people would know the joy of salvation by grace in Jesus. To what degree does this hope motivate you? What opportunities has God given you for the gospel lately?
Living as a faithful witness to Jesus is challenging, in part because the message of the gospel is so contrary to the priorities and practices of our culture. But there's another challenge, more subtle and powerful: How do we live as faithful witnesses to Jesus when the priorities and practices of our culture are often so attractive, promising immediate fulfillment and happiness? The temptation is to take the good things of the world - success at work, happiness in the home, the freedom to recreate - and turn them into idols, allowing our affection and allegiance to be pulled away from Jesus. How do we live in a world full of idols, and keep our minds, hearts, and lives devoted to Jesus?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 10.1-22. Paul is bringing a strong word of challenge to Christians in Corinth who are self-assured in their faith, confident that they’re standing firm. What seems to be the lesson? See particularly v.12. 2. The attitude described in v.12 is presumption. What is presumption? What did it look like for Israel, according to v.1-10? How does it show up in our lives today? 3. Paul says that beneath our presumption is our idolatry: When we’re unaware of the motivations of our hearts, we’re prone to be arrogant or self-assured in our faith. How does awareness of our heart’s motivations help to free us from presumption? 4. Paul says that God allows trial in our lives to help us see what our hearts really worship and trust, so that we’ll be set free to rest in the faithfulness of God to us in Jesus. In what ways is God doing that in your life today?
Part 3 of our Strong Church series (1 Corinthians 8-10) is all about navigating life in the world as Christian. We know that Jesus has come to suffer, die, and rise, victorious over sin. We also know he'll return soon to establish his kingdom of grace, justice, and holistic flourishing. How ought we live in the in between? In this week's text, we're urged to live as a missionary people, orienting our lives around the advance of the gospel. Being a missionary in the everyday requires sacrificing our entitlement, immersing in our culture, and staying faithful to Jesus as we graciously and courageously engage our neighbors with the good news of the gospel.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Read 1 Corinthians 9:1-27. Paul is responding to accusations that he’s not a “real” apostle because he’s unwilling to take money from the Corinthians to support him and his ministry. Notice that in his defense, he actually shows us the nature of Christian witness -we can live as faithful gospel proclaimers in a culture that is not receptive to our message. 2. What is Paul’s defense in v.1-18? Why is he unwilling to take what is rightfully his? How does Paul’s sacrifice of his rights serve to advance the Gospel (see v.12)? What happens to Christian witness when we hold on to our rights or entitlements? 3. Consider v.19. What is his posture toward those with whom he wants to share the Gospel message? 4. Consider v.23. What is his motive for living a life of gospel witness? How might this motivate us? 5. With whom has God given you favor? What aspects of the gospel might be good news to them?
We're launching Part 3 of our Strong Church Series, looking at the challenges of living as Servants of Jesus in a world that doesn't yet know his gracious reign. We've been given incredible freedom through Jesus, and we need to learn how to live with that freedom as we relate to one another, to our neighbors who don't yet know Jesus, and to a world that is still in active rebellion to Him. This week, we consider the ways in which we serve and love one another as God's family, particularly when our convictions regarding the things of this world differ. Our love for one another - particularly in areas of disagreement - is one of the greatest testimonies to the truth of Jesus' present reign.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. This section (chapters 8-10) is about navigating life in the world; not an easy task for someone wanting to be faithful to Jesus and love his or her neighbors. Paul urges the church toward 3 things: Truth, Humility, Sacrificial Love. 2. Truth (v.4-6): What does Paul say is the center of the Christian faith? Why is he saying this here? What is the implication he draws in v.7-8? 3. Humility (v.1-3). Paul has some strong rebukes for those who think they’re knowledgeable. What is he saying? How does being known by God lead to humility? 4. Sacrificial Love (v.9-13). While this text is focused on relating to one another in the body of Christ, the fact is that all people are made in God’s image and are people for whom Christ died. How ought that shape our engagement with one another and our neighbors? 5. Where in your life are you engaging with people who don’t share your spiritual beliefs? How can you engage them with truth, humility, and sacrificial love? What might be one next step toward deepening relationship and having gospel conversation?
We wrap up Part 2 of our Strong Church series with Paul's reflections on the joys, benefits, and challenges of singleness. Christianity embraces singleness as a unique and beneficial calling - Jesus was single, as was Paul - and Paul argues that it is in many ways preferable to marriage. At the same time, he's wonderfully pragmatic: singleness means celibacy, and that is no easy calling for sexual beings. In the end, we're all made for a love and intimacy with Christ that marriage and sex only hint at, and living in the anticipation of the coming fullness of that love frees us to be single or married with joy, selflessness, and contentedness.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 7:25-40. The best way to understand “the betrothed” is “those who have not married.” Paul’s clarifying for the Corinthians the benefits and pitfalls of singleness, arguing that singleness is uniquely advantageous. What benefits of singleness does he mention? 2. Considering Paul’s positive vision of singleness, why do you think marriage is so often assumed to be the ideal? To what degree does Paul agree or disagree here? 3. What are some of the biggest challenges or tensions for single people in the church and the world? 4. How can single people steward the gift of singleness well? How can married people honor and encourage them? 5. How can we as single and married people mutually encourage one another toward “undivided devotion” to the Lord (v.35)?
No matter where you find yourself, what ever life situation that salvation now finds you, it finds you for the sake of sharing that salvation where you are. God hasn’t made a mistake in where he has put you, and he fully intends on you living out your salvation exactly where you are: in your family, with your coworkers, at your school, in your neighborhood. A strong church is God’s people living out their salvation right where they are with intentionality and humility.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read 1 Corinthians 7:10-24. Three times in this section Paul tells the Corinthians to embrace the sphere in which God has placed them. What are some the examples he gives in v.10-24 to illustrate the point? Why is his instruction significant for these situations? 2. Paul uses some identity language in v.23. Of what is he trying to remind the Corinthians? What makes this phrasing so significant? 3. Where has God placed you? In what situations or groups of people has he in his great sovereign wisdom place you in or among? 4. What would it look like to remain in that situation with God (v.24)? What is Paul urging us to do? 5. According to the sermon, what are the resources God has given us for this task?
The bible offers a unique view of human wholeness, and no where is that more obvious than in regards to singleness, marriage, and sex. In a culture full of mixed messages, the bible shoots straight: our bodies and our sexuality are gifts from God and need to be stewarded well for the sake of our own and other’s flourishing. In marriage, that means mutual honor, care, and commitment to one another and to the sexual union. In singleness, that means honoring the body in celibacy and learning to cultivate non-sexual intimacy. Surprisingly, married people can worship God by having regular sex and single people can worship God by not having sex! Only the gospel - the good news of God’s intimate love for us in the gift of his Son - can dethrone sex, set us free from the need of it, and free us to enjoy it as God intended.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read the text, 1 Corinthians 7.1-16. In v. 1, Paul quotes something the Corinthian church was saying. In v.2-6, he responds and corrects their view. What are your initial reactions to Paul’s instructions regarding sex in marriage? 2. Steve said that Good Married Sex is obedient, other-centered, holistic, redemptive, and joyful. Unpack and define each of those. Which is most challenging for you? Which is most encouraging? Why? 3. Consider Paul’s instructions to singles in v.7-9. What are your initial reactions to Paul’s instructions regarding sex and singleness? What is most challenging for you? What is most encouraging? 4. Taking all of this together, how does the gospel shape our view of the body, sex, and sexuality? Where does it call you to repentance? Where does it invite you to rejoicing?
There's no hotter topic than sex and sexuality, and nothing in human experience has the unique ability to be simultaneously profoundly beautiful and powerfully destructive in our lives. How can we account for both the heights of intimacy experienced in sexual union and the depths of brokenness experienced through sexual abuse, confusion, and shame? Our culture has no answer, but the bible does: God made the body good, and his design was that sex would create an indestructible bond between husband and wife. And though we've misused and abused his good gift, the fact remains that our bodies belong to our Creator and he has a good purpose for them. In the gospel, God redeems the body and restores sex to its rightful purpose: worship!
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read the text, 1 Corinthians 6.9-20. Take note that the quotations are most likely Corinthian sayings or slogans, and Paul is trying to respond to and correct their understandings. At first read, what does Paul seem to be most concerned about in this text? In what ways do we see their views at work in both the church and society? 2. There’s (at least!) two big challenges to real conversation regarding the body, sex, and sexuality. First, we all have our own stories, including harm we’ve caused and harm we’ve received via the body and sex. Second, the strength of Paul’s corrections can feel divisive and even hateful. In what ways do these realities make the conversation difficult for you? 3. Consider Paul’s theology of the body (v.15-20). What does he say about the body here? Why is it significant? Are there parts of it that are new or hard for you to get your mind around? 4. Reflect on your own journey of body, sex, and sexuality. Where has there been harm or confusion? Where has there been freedom or victory? 5. End by meditating on v.11, considering all that Jesus has done for our sexual struggles and brokenness. What does it mean “and such were some of you”? And how is each declaration - washed, sanctified, and justified - really good news for us?
Through Jesus, we have been adopted into God’s family. And, like in any family, it is up to the parents to establish the culture of their home. Paul corrects the Corinthian church like a father shapes his family. He wants them to understand who they are (Identity), what the rules are (Morals), and how they are to interact with the world (Ethics). Paul doesn’t ignore the reality that all people, families and communities experience conflict. In these verses, he passionately warns the church that way they handle conflict matters. It matters for those in the family, and those who are outside looking in.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: 1. Read this week’s text, 1 Corinthians 6:1-8. Notice how many times Paul uses the term “Brothers” (this isn’t meant to be limited to male). What difference does it make that the Bible refers to the Church as a family? What would be different if we viewed our church life as if it were family. 2. What is your default response to conflict? Fight, flight, Freeze? Have you experienced poor responses to conflict? What was the cost? 3. There are some very practical applications in these verses. How is God inviting you to respond? Is there areas you need to allow yourself to suffer wrong? Are there conflicts and offenses that you need to work through?
A Strong Church is a family on mission in the world. Like any strong family, the core convictions of the family create a certain kind of culture or way of being together - an ecosystem of sorts. The church is founded on the gospel - the gracious work of God to rescue a people to himself through Jesus - and must learn to live in line with that good news and grand mission. In chapter 5, Paul brings correction and discipline to the Corinthians, so they might learn to live together in sincerity and truth.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION As you engage with this series, we'll be including weekly review questions. Designed for personal reflection and communal conversation, these questions will help you dig into the sermon text, wrestle with the main themes, and take action in response.
- Before you read this week’s text, read 1 Corinthians 1.4-9. What is Paul’s posture toward the Corinthian church? What does he believe to be true about them in Christ? Why is this important?
- Read this week’s text, 1 Corinthians 5.1-13. Notice the strength of Paul’s corrections. What seems to be Paul’s main concern?
- In addition to sexual immorality, what other issues is Paul addressing in this text? In your experience, how well does the church do at talking about these issues?
- According to the message, we need correction. What are some of the reasons we need it? What is the aim or goal of correction?
- “The church is a self-correcting ecosystem of grace.” What does this mean? How do we pursue it together?
While we cannot bring real change in our lives through direct effort, we can participate with the God by engaging in simple, regular practices that help us see the gospel clearly and invite the Spirit to do his work in us. As we wrap up our series, we’re summing up what we’ve learned this month and moving toward engaging in key habits of grace that can propel a lifestyle of growth and maturity.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Read 2 Peter 1.3-11
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What indicative (statement of fact or promise) in this text is most striking to you? What does Peter want us to know about God, what he’s done, and who we are in Christ?
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What are the imperatives (instructions or commands) in the text? What is Peter urging us toward?
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When you think of godliness, what image comes to mind? How does Peter’s description in v.5-7 shift your understanding? If godliness equals becoming like Jesus, what is Peter telling us in v.3 is possible in our lives?
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Steve mentions 3 pieces to a lifestyle of growth and change: Vision, Intention, and Means. Unpack each one, and discuss their importance.
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What habits of grace are you currently engaged in? Are there specific habits you’d like to add into your life in this season? How might these habits position you for the work God wants to do in you?
Real growth and change begin with God's call to maturity, and Peter gives one description (among many in the Scriptures) of the kind of godliness that ought to increasingly characterize our lives. He also tells us that real growth is simply the fruit of all we have in Jesus getting worked more deeply into our hearts and minds, undermining our unbelief, fears, pride, brokenness, and sin. In his grace, God has supplied all we need for life and godliness in Jesus, and our role is to "make every effort" to mature by continuously placing ourselves in position to receive that grace. Throughout the Scriptures, and throughout history, the church has recognized a handful of simple practices that help us stay in the stream of grace. What are the habits of grace? And how can we engage them today?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Read 2 Peter 1:3-11
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In light of what we’ve been learning this month, what does Peter mean that we have been given all we need for life and godliness? What has God provided in the gospel?
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What did Irenaeus mean when he said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” What does God want to do in our lives? What is the Bible's vision of “godliness?”
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What is a “habit of grace,” and what role do they play in the Christian life? What is your experience with them?
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As you think about how God is working to mature and deepen you, are there any specific practices you think might be helpful to engage? How might you do that with the support of your community?
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Consider celebrating communion with your community. Before you do, take some time to remind one another of what Jesus has done for us and given to us. What aspect of the gospel is really good news for you in your areas of struggle?
Real growth and change begins with a VISION of who God wants to make us by his grace. Peter tells us we've been given everything for a lifestyle of godliness - that we can actually share in the life of God, growing in true goodness, steadiness, affection, and love. Once we have a vision, we need INTENTION, a sturdy commitment to do all we can to move toward maturity. This begins with an ongoing willingness to really face ourselves and see what needs to change, and then requires our whole-hearted effort toward that change ("make every effort," Peter says). But what kind of effort is needed for real change? What is Peter actually calling us to do? Since we're not just digging deeper and trying harder, what does grace-based effort really look like?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Read 2 Peter 1:1-11
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Consider Peter’s list in v.5-7. What kind of person is Peter describing? What is his vision of maturity?
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Peter gives 3 reasons why we should “make every effort” to grow into maturity (v.8, v.10, and v.11). What are his reasons? Why do they matter?
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In v.9, Peter tells us the kind of effort we need to make in order to grow. What is he saying about the areas of unfruitfulness or ineffectiveness in our lives? How is his answer different from what you might expect?
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Peter puts his process in the negative (“whoever lacks...”). How might you rephrase it in the positive? In other words, what leads to real growth and change?
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As you consider some areas the Spirit is working to grow and mature you, what aspects of who Jesus is and has done really need to get worked in? How might you do that?
If we’re honest, there are parts of us we simply don’t like. We have patterns of thought, ways of relating, or habitual behaviors that plague us. For most of us, that means we spend a lot of energy hiding our bad stuff and pretending we’re further along than we really are. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a better way - a way that leads to real change - and it is simpler than you might imagine. This month, we're digging into 2 Peter 1.3-11 and looking at how real change takes place.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
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This month, we're asking you to consider areas of struggle and weakness relationally, emotionally, and/or spiritually. Where are you seeing your need for growth and change?
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What does the promise of 2 Peter 1.3 imply? Why might Peter be starting his letter with these reminders?
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According to the sermon, one of the biggest temptations in life is toward "moral reformation" (trying hard to change yourself by your own strength). What makes that kind of change ultimately unhelpful? Why is it such a temptation?
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The message ended with 3 simple "steps" to engage growth in a grace-based and Spirit-dependent way. What can you begin to put into practice today?
The final gift of Advent is joy, and this week we're looking at Jesus' promise to give a fullness of joy that can never be taken away (John 16.22). Like the other gifts of Advent, joy is something required for human flourishing but often hard to secure. As we walk through life, sorrows seem to multiply. How can we receive life with full joy in the face of life's sorrows?
Hope is the confidence that there is something better beyond the horizon. But, the suffering of this world steals confidence and convinces us that hope must be a cruel and fleeting thing. Jesus speaks truth to our troubled and weary hearts and proclaims that he is the Hope we are in desperate need of.
Peace is not an absence of something, it is the presence of something, the presence of God.
Jesus says he is the True Vine - the only place where what we need for a thriving life can be found. We’ll talk about the ways we go in search of love, acceptance, and validation, how that always ends in a shriveled life, and how “abiding” in Jesus leads to a love-filled soul and overflows in loving relationships.
Recounting the process God has brought Aaron and Megan on as they’ve gone from marginal involvement in the church and mission of Jesus to rearranging their lives around what He is up to and preparing to move their family to serve the in the disciple-making movement in Slovakia! A combination of story-telling, gospel proclamation, and invitation to partnership.
The Corinthians are assigning way too much significance to certain leaders within the church, which always leads to deifying or demonizing them. Instead, Paul urges that we see leaders as servants and stewards - men and women called to sacrifice so the church flourishes, tenderly but courageously pointing the church toward Jesus.
Paul is continuing to bring the Corinthians back to the basics of the gospel and the way of life it produces. In this section, Paul emphasizes the fact that the church is God’s building, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, to be a dwelling place for the Spirit. It is a unique view of what the church is, what the church needs, and how we all move together towards God’s purposes for us.
While the gospel destroys the wisdom of the world and the schemes of religion, it does have its own hidden and secret wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how the world works and living in it in a way that leads to flourishing. If you want to know how the world works, and you want to play it well, the popular options - Religion and Secularism Wisdom - will fail you, driving you deeper into the pride and self-will that is the root of all our problems. But the Gospel offers a radically different kind of wisdom - given by the Spirit of God - which leads to a flourishing life - not just eternal life, but abundant life now, today, here in all the regular stuff of life.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, because in it God confronts the proud, exalts the lowly, and creates a new kind of people - people deeply aware of their weakness and simultaneously empowered by the Spirit.
Paul’s first appeal to his brothers in Corinth is to find unity under the leadership of Jesus. The divisions about leaders reveal our tendency to reach for physical resources (people, organizations, programs, etc.) instead of Jesus. We wrongly assume we will find fulfillment in those resources. But, only Jesus offers what we are looking for. Only Jesus offers forgiveness, resurrection, and a new identity.
Paul’s first words are thanksgivings to God for his gracious work in Jesus and among the Corinthian church. His words to them are full of confidence in God’s provision and hopefulness in God’s work among them. He’s describing what the church really is, at its core: a people called by God to fellowship with his Son, richly provided for all life and ministry, and guaranteed to be sustained guiltless to the day of Jesus’ return.
A vision for gospel saturation and how it gets worked out into everyday-life disciple-making.
This week we are building on our Vision of Gospel Saturation (Has 2.14), talking about how the church engages in the mission of God. We'll talk about what ministry is (gospel truth in the context of relationship) and clarify the reality that every church member is a minister or missionary.
Paul prays that we’d know our Resources in Christ, our Relationship with Christ and each other, and our Glorious Reality - that God is filling the world with his glory through the church - through us!
Habakkuk speaks from the world we all are familiar with - injustice, suffering, pain, and evil - and shows us the world to come, where knowledge of God’s good heart and his glorious presence seeps into all the nooks and crannies of our world, bringing restoration to all things. It is a vision worth living for!
God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To recognize we were created for someone and for a purpose in a moving story of redemption is life changing, to the point of contentment.
As created beings we will navigate with something. Something will take up residence in our lives and cause us to make decisions, feel emotions, respond in relationships, and sense satisfaction or not. We are created as worshipers, we will worship someone or something, always! There is a battle going on in and around us. The battle is for our hearts. What or who will we worship?
Rejoicing in the LORD in the midst of suffering is a byproduct of treasuring Christ and His Resurrection above all else.
The Gospel Story presented at our "All Family Gathering" (kids gathered with us) and a connection to Paul's encouragement to find "kindred spirits" as we seek to live a life worthy of the Gospel.
The character and accomplishments of Christ call us to looking to serve one another in unity and to seek His glory and not our own.
The gospel, the good news of what Christ has accomplished and what Christ has obtained for us and for the greatness of eternity with God, is so great it redefines what is good in life.
A life worthy of the gospel is a life that receives grace to give grace - in Jesus name.
Paul shared the gospel through his own story with great boldness. We’ll talk about who God has sent us to, and what it looks like to be a missionary in the everyday.
Spirit directed people move towards people by learning their stories and pointing them to rescue in Jesus.
Church leaders have to decide what the requirements are for salvation - do Gentiles need to become Jews in addition to faith in Jesus? Or is Jesus enough? It is a great question, and one that needs to be constantly revisited in every generation. Are there things we are adding to the gospel that create barriers to people placing faith in Jesus?
We’re looking at the theme of church planting this week in Acts 13-14. The church at Antioch is a model NT church - a local, multi-ethnic church with a vision to send out church-planting missionary teams to fulfill the Great Commission by preaching the gospel, establishing churches, and equipping local leaders to carry on the work.
This week’s text is Acts 14, Paul preaching the gospel among non-churched pagans. After Acts 13, he is more clear about taking the gospel to the Gentiles. And though Acts 14 starts with him in the synagogue again, the bulk of the text looks at how he preached Jesus to people who don’t know the bible, don’t believe in one God, and don’t have a sense of sin (as breaking God’s rules). Interestingly, Paul starts a few steps back before the gospel - he speaks about idolatry (building your life and hope on something other than God) and contrasts that with the One Living God, Creator of all things. He also emphasizes the mercy of the Creator (giving good gifts to all) and the moment of reckoning (God is now calling everyone everywhere to trust in his Son). It is a very different way of presenting the very same Gospel, calling people to turn to God in repentance and faith, trusting in Jesus.
This week’s text is Acts 13, particularly looking at how Paul articulates the gospel to the religious Jews of his day. We’ll use that to connect to how churched people need to hear and rehear the gospel, even if we think we believe it. My aim is to show us that evangelism happens as much among churched folks as among pagans.
This week’s text is Acts 10-11, the conversion of Cornelius. The focus is again on what conversion is and how it happens, and what results in a truly converted life. We will contrast conversion with “getting religious” this week, as well as highlight the Spirit’s yearning to make a multi-cultural family (Jews and Gentiles, people from every tribe & tongue, all worshipping Jesus).
This week’s text is Acts 9, the conversion of Saul/Paul. While it is a wild story of encounter with the risen Jesus, there are key elements that we see present in every genuine conversion. Conversion happens when we encounter the Risen Jesus, and his resurrection changes everything!
The theme for this message is “New Life in Jesus.” We’ll look at Philip and the Ethiopian, talk about how the Spirit brings about conversion, the necessity of community, and the power of the gospel to transform a life. The Ethiopian is a great story of rescue, and a great opportunity to celebrate Jesus!
So far in the book of acts, the followers of Jesus have dedicated themselves to understanding what Jesus death and resurrection accomplished, to praying to boldly share the gospel, and expecting the Holy Spirit to be a witness and everything is nice and comfortable. What happens when there is persecution to the point of death? And what could bot so important that it was worth dying for? The answers are in Acts 6-7.
This week’s text is basically all about how the Spirit led the church through resistance to the gospel mission. The fragile new church movement experiences opposition from without (religious leaders) and from within (hypocrisy and strife). And in each instance, the Spirit of God continues to move them toward mission fulfillment and a bold witness to Christ.
This week’s text is a fascinating account of healing and gospel proclamation. While there’s much unique about the incident - this is a couple of Apostles uniquely anointed for a miraculous healing and gospel opportunity - there’s also much about the incident that is intended to be normative. In particular, Jesus is always healing and changing lives, and that ought to always create a stir and an opportunity for speaking of Jesus. Peter makes a beeline from the healing to speaking about Jesus, even making sure to minimize his own role in so that Jesus is clearly the hero of the incident. The Spirit of God is always changing lives by faith in Jesus and creating opportunity for gospel to go forward.
This week’s text is the conclusion to Peter’s sermon and the description of the life of the early church. When Peter finishes preaching, the people exclaim, “What shall we do?” It is a great question, and gospel preaching always leads to a decision - you have to do something with the message of Jesus the crucified, resurrected, and ascended King of the World. You can’t simply shrug it off! The hearers are cut to the heart, and begin to repent and put their faith in Jesus, signified by baptism. The result is a unique and beautiful community, built on the gospel word, shaped into rhythms of shared life and worship, and wonderfully attractive to a watching world.
This week’s text is Peter’s first sermon. Its remarkable on a number of fronts, not the least of which is the boldness of Peter in light of the Peter we saw cowardly betraying Jesus! Now he’s in front of the crowd preaching the gospel, telling the people they killed Jesus! But his message is the foundational message of the early church, and it contains the core teaching of Christianity.
This week’s text highlights the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit. As Jesus goes up, the Spirit comes down, and the church goes out! That’s a great little summary, but there’s power in both the doctrine of the ascension - that Jesus is ruling now as the king of the world - and the coming of the Spirit - by which Jesus is continuing his ministry through the church today. We’ll look at these 2 movements and how they combine to send the church on mission.
Acts begins in the middle of the Story - God’s rescue mission story told throughout the bible, culminating in the work and teaching of Jesus, and now incorporating all disciples of Jesus. The church is commissioned to carry on the work of Jesus, witnessing to his death and resurrection, and taking the good news to the ends of the earth. Jesus has made generous provision for the church in her mission by promising to send the Holy Spirit to empower and send her to be witnesses.
This week’s text encourages us to expect God to speak as we gather, both through his written Word and through his Spirit by giving gifts to his people.
Paul begins to lay out the importance of spiritual gifts and their role in the body of Christ. His emphasis is on the Spirit’s sovereignty in giving gifts as well as the purpose of the gifts - to build up the body of Christ. We’ll discuss Spirit’s desire to make much of Jesus in our church through gifts of grace.
Jesus offers the wells of salvation, giving his Spirit without measure to all who believe.