Redeemer Bible Church Sermon Audio: Recent Episodes
Redeemer Bible Church
Redeemer Bible Church exists to glorify God by making disciples. Listen to our Sunday sermons here or learn more on our website: www.redeemerbible.church
Hebrews 5:11-14 | Every follower of Jesus Christ is somewhere along this pathway, whether you have just begun your journey of faith or have matured in Christ for many years. Use this resource as a tool to determine how you can take your next steps of discipleship and help disciple someone else too.
Luke 7:36-50 | Those who understand how deeply they have been forgiven by Christ live with a deep love for Christ. The gospel announces to us that we have all been forgiven a debt we never could have repaid and a chasm we never could have climbed out of. This radical forgiveness should lead to radical love. Luke 7:36-50 shows us a dinner scene of a sinful woman who got it, and a self–righteous man who didn't.
Luke 7:18-35 | John the Baptist preached about the coming Christ. He shared a bloodline with Jesus Christ. He baptized Christ. And yet in Luke 7:19, we see John the Baptist ask a staggering question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Some of us may ask the same question, “who is this Jesus?” John the Baptist had expectations for Jesus that went unmet, but Jesus still came worthy of our worship. Like John, we may have unmet expectations. As we get our eyes in Luke 7, we the Savior who came, how we behold him rightly, and that He is worthy of our worship.
Luke 7:1-17 | Why should we trust Jesus with every part of our lives? Luke 7 answers that question by revealing not only what Jesus can do, but who he truly is. Through the healing of the centurion's servant and the raising of the widow's son, Jesus displays unmatched authority over death alongside astonishing compassion for the broken. Seeing his glory doesn't merely produce admiration—it gives us confidence to follow him with our whole lives.
Luke 6:46-49 | Every single one of us is building our life on a foundation. We will either build our life on rock which will withstand all the floodwaters this world brings, or we will build our life on sand and be washed away by the storms. This passage gives us the blueprint to build a life on the rock that will withstand life's floodwaters.
Luke 6:43-45 | Like a tree bears fruit, so do our hearts — and it matters where we’re rooted. Where are you rooted? What is your treasure? And how do we find out what we treasure? In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus illustrates that our fruit comes from the treasure of our heart and is exposed by our words. But this is more than behavior modification, Jesus is telling us we can’t bear fruit on our own, but only through fervent dependence on Him.
Luke 6:35-42 | God has shown us great mercy. In his sermon on the plain, Jesus tells us to be merciful as our Heavenly Father as shown us mercy. But what does that look like? How do we do this? As we open our Bibles to Luke 6, we’ll see dos, don’ts, and come to understand that we can only show this mercy by following Jesus well.
Luke 6:17-36 | What if the blessed life is different from everything we have heard? What if the blessed life isn't just the American Dream with Jesus riding shotgun? What if instead it's nearly the exact opposite? And love? What if when we follow Jesus, we love with a love that isn't just extraordinary, but supernatural? What if Jesus can give us a heart to actually love people who dislike us? This passage leads us into the radical redefining of blessings and love.
Luke 6:12-16 | Who gets picked first for the sports game? The best athlete. Who wins first chair in the band? The most gifted musician? Who gets accepted into Ivy League schools? The brightest. Who wins the lead role in the musical? The most talented singer. We are used to being chosen based on merit and resume. As Jesus chose the twelve and called them to him as apostles, his process looked much different. Let's look together at the calling of the twelve by the praying, grace-giving Savior.
Luke 6:1-11 | The Pharisees' Sabbath rules prevented them from seeing the Lord of the Sabbath right in front of them. Their rules made the Sabbath a burden on God's people rather than a gift from God to his people. Jesus exposes this reality and explains the good heart of a good God, who gives good gifts for the good of his people. This passage frees us from the burden of any " manmade, red-tape regulations" and into the joy of a good God's good gifts to his people.
Luke 5:33-39 | This group raised a valid issue. People who were serious about God devoted themselves to the weekly rituals of prayer and fasting. So why weren't Jesus' disciples doing the same? Weren't they serious about God? Jesus used their inquiry to teach important truths: the new wine he has brought will not fit in old wineskins of ritualism, legalism, or any other -ism. This teaching has the potential to change our lives by ushering us out of any old ways of ritualistic legalism and into the joy of the new wine, new heart, and new covenant realities Jesus offers.
Luke 5:27-32 | In this passage we come to know more of Jesus’ heart toward sinners. Jesus not only calls sinners and loves them deeply, He draws near to the places of their souls where they are most struggling with sin. Jesus is the perfect doctor who deeply desires to bring spiritual healing and care to the sick.
Luke 5:12-26 | In this text, we are going to see a theme of restoration. Restoration is taking something damaged, deteriorated, or altered and bringing it back to its proper, designed state. Luke here shares two stories that on the surface are physical healings, but as we look deeper, we will see that these are not just examples of repair of broken bodies, but examples of restoration that have implications for us today. The summary point of the sermon is this: Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and thus restore our relationship to God forever.
Luke 5:1-11 | After a career defining catch of fish, a group of fishermen left it all to follow Jesus. Jesus had shown his power and authority so clearly that these men were willing to leave everything and follow Him. When we see Jesus for who He is, we will follow Him wherever He calls. These 11 verses on Sunday might just change the entire trajectory of how we follow Jesus.
Luke 4:31-44 | Jesus begins his Great Commission with the statement, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This authority didn't begin only after his resurrection, but we see his authority on display as Luke unpacks the beginning of his earthly ministry. This week we will see the authority of Jesus' word, his authority over the demonic, his authority over disease, and his authority to preach the good news of the Kingdom! Our Lord truly is the one with ALL authority!
Luke 4:14-30 | Jesus stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth, unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, found Isaiah 61, and unapologetically declared who he was. He is the good news preacher, the bondage breaker, and the strong Savior. This revelation of who He is demands a response. His declaration demands a decision. Will we submit to Him for who He is?
Luke 4:1-13 | The scriptures tell us that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are and yet was without sin. Luke 4 gives us a powerful scene of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. This passage shows us the schemes the enemy uses to tempt, and more importantly, how Jesus used God's word to withstand temptation. When we are tempted to sin, the Word has the power to win.
Luke 3:21-38 | Jesus is the Son of God. The theology of Jesus as the very Son of God is central to our understanding of his work as Lord and Savior. As we walk through the end of Luke 3, we want to look at the Father's affirmation of the Son and the genealogy of Jesus. With both of these Luke desires us to see and worship Jesus as the Son of God.
1 Corinthians 15:1-28 | At the center of Christianity is the gospel, and at the center of that gospel is a crucified and risen Savior. This Easter, we turn to 1 Corinthians 15 to ask and answer three crucial questions for our lives: 1) Why do I need the gospel?, 2) What is the gospel?, and 3) Why is the resurrection essential to the gospel? Join us as we celebrate the hope giving reality of the Risen Christ.
Luke 3:18-20 | John the Baptist came preaching a baptism of repentance. This demanded he confront people in their sin and point them to the coming Savior from sin. And John was willing to confront everyone in their sin, including Herod. His confrontation of Herod proved very costly from an earthly standpoint. Obedience is costly. Confrontation often costly. But it's a worthy cost. Let's look at that together.
Luke 3:15-17 | John the Baptist reminds us that life and ministry were never meant to point to us, but to Jesus. In a moment where people could have easily elevated him, John makes it clear: he’s not the Savior, he’s just pointing to Him. And that same calling is on us. Our lives are meant to function like a signpost, directing people to Christ.
Luke 3:7-14 | Wrath. Repentance. Judgment. Response. Some of these words carry heavy connotations. Sometimes, people may even want to avoid these words. John the Baptist didn't. His preaching confronted the crowds with the reality of God's wrath, the need for genuine repentance, the nearness of God's judgment, and the demand to respond. On Sunday, we will see what he had to say and open our hearts to any ways the Holy Spirit seeks to confront us through the power of His Word.
Luke 3:1-6 | There are two massive and connected statements regarding the life of John the Baptist. The first is something he said: "He must increase, and I must decrease."" The second is something Jesus said of him: "...among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist..." These realities are connected. John understood the best way he could spend his life was to humble himself in a way that exalted Jesus. This is the picture of true greatness. We begin a four week look at the life and ministry of John the Baptist seeking to understand what a life of decrease so Christ increases can look like.
Luke 2:41-52 | As we turn our eyes to Luke 2:41-52, we see the only account in the gospels of Jesus’ life between his birth and the beginning of his adult ministry. The story of Jesus’ time in the temple as a twelve-year-old is all about obedience: obedience modeled by his parents, obedience to his heavenly father, and obedience to his earthly parents.
Luke 2:22-38 |What are you ultimately waiting for with eager anticipation? We may eagerly anticipate many good things, but only one can be ultimate: the day our faith becomes sight. The day we see our Savior face to face. In Luke 2 we are introduced to Simeon and Anna, two aged saints waiting and longing for their faith to become sight. Though we now live between the two comings of Christ, we can learn much from these two saints about what it looks like to wait and worship until our faith becomes sight.
Luke 2:1-21 |The King of Kings came to earth in the humblest of ways. His birth was announced to the most unlikely of people. Worship over what had happened resounded in the most unlikely of places. The message was shared by the most unlikely of messengers. The Highest King came in the humblest of ways, and there is so much for us to be instructed and encouraged by as we look at this reality.
Luke 1:57-80 | John's birth had been foretold, now it is realized. With this promise from God fulfilled, worshipful ramifications ripple. And with this promise fulfilled, Zechariah is filled with a prophecy of praise. This passage highlights for us God as a promise keeper and compassionate Redeemer. The implications of these two realities of God have a massive impact on how we live with Him in the here and now of everyday life.
Luke 1:26-56 | We know Jesus is gracious. We experience his grace. We see his grace in his life, death, and resurrection. Luke 1 unpacks for us, though, the grace of God in the announcement to Mary that she will conceive and give birth to a son. Everything about Gabriel's announcement to Mary magnifies the amazement of God's glorious grace. So let's walk through this announcement in Luke 1 and see grace signified, grace personified, and grace magnified in such a way that leads us to deeper awe of God's amazing grace.
Luke 1:5-25 | We established in week one that he Gospel of Luke is a Spirit-inspired, historically perfect, authorized biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what we might expect next is for Luke to mention Jesus...but he doesn't. Mary and Joseph? Nope. Luke introduces us first to the parents of John the Baptist. Why is this? And what are some massive lessons God is teaching us through this couple we meet in Luke 1?
Luke 1:1-4 | What are you certain about? I didn't ask what you were confident about, but what are you absolutely certain about? Some say you can't be certain about anything. Luke would beg to differ. This Sunday we begin our series in the gospel of Luke, and we begin with the declaration that we can have absolute certainty about Jesus. Let's go on this journey together to see the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and what it means for us to follow him as Lord with absolute certainty.
Acts 4:23-31 | What is our greatest need to be a faithful gospel witness? What is our greatest hurdle to a life of faithfully sharing Christ with the lost? It isn't more training. It is more boldness. In Acts 4 we see the church gather in the face of threats to ask the Lord not for more safety, or more training, but to ask for more boldness. This Sunday, as the final sermon in our prayer series and the final session of our Sent Conference, we will look at the prayer, the power, and the perseverance of prayer-fueled witness.
Various Passages in Acts | The old adage goes, "The family that prays together, stays together." It's true for church families as well: The church that prays together, stays together. There is unity, fellowship, joy, and missional oneness that comes as we devote ourselves to prayer together. We will take a walk through the book of Acts to look at the times the church gathered for prayer together and the circumstances that drove them to corporate prayer. This must deepen our own convictions for the priority of corporate prayer.
Matthew 6:5-13 | E.M. Bounds in his classic, Power Through Prayer, notes that prayer is great spiritual work, and our flesh opposes great spiritual work. This is so true. We long to lean into this great spiritual work in a deeper way because we know there is a depth of communion, transformation, and enjoyment with the Lord as our prayer life with Him deepens. This Sunday we turn to Jesus' teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount to prepare us for a deeper prayer life in 2026.
Nehemiah 13 | Nehemiah came to Jerusalem the first time a revivalist. He now returns to Jerusalem a reformer. A reformer sees the evils that are downright wrong and seeks to make them right before the Lord. In this chapter we will watch as Nehemiah seeks to bring purity back to the people of God and their worship of God through the reforms he initiates. As we walk through each of these five reforms, may we be sensitive to where the Lord may want to reform these areas in our own lives as well.
Nehemiah 12:27-47 | Most versions of Nehemiah 12:27-47 have the heading “the dedication of the wall.” As this passage of scripture unfolds, we’ll see much more than just a dedication of a wall, and much more than the celebration of an incredible accomplishment, but an all-out worship service to a sovereign God who always fulfills his promises. This morning we’ll unpack four elements of corporate worship we see from this wall dedication, and how they impact the corporate worship gathering today.
Nehemiah 9-10 | God's people have been captivated by God's Word, and now they are under conviction. As Nehemiah 9 begins we find God's people gathered in sackcloth, fasting, and with earth on their heads. This is a solemn assembly. In the midst of this conviction, we see them express God-exalting contrite confession (ch. 9) and God-exalting resolute repentance (ch. 10). What bout their confession and repentance keeps God at the forefront and his glory their motivation? And what can we learn so our confession and repentance is driven more by the worship of God than by the wallowing in self? Let's get a glimpse of what God-exalting confession and repentance looks like in our life.
Nehemiah 7-8 | The Word of God...that lamp to our feet, hammer to our will, double-edged sword that pierces our inmost being. The power of the Word of God transforms everything. Nehemiah 8 is a vivid picture of a revival with the Word of God at the center of it. As we walk through it together we will look at 6 Convictions for People of the Word. This passage will stoke our reverence for and dependence on the Word of God.
Nehemiah 7-8 | The Word of God...that lamp to our feet, hammer to our will, double-edged sword that pierces our inmost being. The power of the Word of God transforms everything. Nehemiah 8 is a vivid picture of a revival with the Word of God at the center of it. As we walk through it together we will look at 6 Convictions for People of the Word. This passage will stoke our reverence for and dependence on the Word of God.
Nehemiah 6 | There are very few guarantees in life. One of them is this: if you are faithfully walking in obedience to the Lord, opposition will come. What do we do when opposition hits? How should we respond? As we continue our study of the book of Nehemiah, we’ll see what chapter 6 has to say about our response to spiritual opposition.
Nehemiah 5 | In the midst of the wall's rebuilding, there is a major problem. The problem does not lie in a breach of the wall but rather in a breach of love among God's people. As Nehemiah learns of the injustice, he puts the people over the project, and with a loving, righteous indignation seeks to right what is wrong. What was this problem? What does it look like to pursue justice? What does loving sacrifice for the people of God look like? And how does Jesus encapsulate the perfect picture of all of this? Nehemiah 5 will tell us how.
Nehemiah 4 | If we are faithful to obey the Lord and be about his work, we will face opposition. What the Lord is moving forward for his glory and Kingdom, the enemy will be sure to oppose. In Nehemiah 4 we see opposition to the rebuilding of the walls. In this chapter we will see what kinds of opposition God's people face, and we will also learn how to press on and persevere in the face of opposition.
Nehemiah 3 | Nehemiah 3 is a beautiful picture of what it looks like when all of God's people come together to do God's work for God's glory. This chapter is a detailed unpacking of the different groups that rebuilt the different sections of the wall around Jerusalem. Within these details we will be built up and encouraged to faithfully play our part alongside God's people to do God's work for His glory!
Nehemiah 2 | Our God establishes our steps and turns hearts of kings as he pleases. We know these Proverbs to be true, and as we study Nehemiah 2, we get to see them functionally play out. Nehemiah will pray, he will plan, and he will obey, and we will see God sovereignly accomplish his will.
Nehemiah 1 | Nehemiah heard the situation in Jerusalem, and it wasn't good. The people were in great trouble and shame. The walls were broken down and the gates burned. These words reporting the broken state of Jerusalem laid a burden on Nehemiah that led to days of weeping, mourning, fasting, and prayer. Fortunately for us, we have his prayer recorded for us. This week we will turn to his prayer to learn what it looks like to pray when we are burdened for what's broken.
Ezra 10 | Ezra gives us a beautiful picture of what happens as God revives and restores his people. Though beautiful, there is brokenness that happens in the beauty. One of the marks of revival is the confession and forsaking of sin. Ezra 10 gives us a powerful picture of what it looks like to allow the mourning of sin to lead to the confessing and forsaking of sin. As we see our sin for what it is, take heart, we will see our Savior for who he is as well.
Ezra 9 | God has been faithful to lead a remnant of the exiles of Israel out of slavery, but it is made known to Ezra that the people have once again been unfaithful to God’s commands and sinned against Him as before. Ezra then mourns the sin of the people and comes before God in confession. Over these four weeks we are going to see "Four Marks of Revival" in Ezra 7-10. We look at the third mark of revival on Sunday: mourning our sin.
Ezra 8 | God makes the way straight. But as we see in Ezra 8, his people must make their hearts low, and acknowledge his presence ultimately is what satisfies. Over the next four weeks we are going to see "Four Marks of Revival" in Ezra 7-10. We look at the second mark of revival on Sunday: prayer & fasting.
Ezra 7 | When the Word of God is central among the people of God, the Son of God is lifted high. In history, anytime you see a genuine revival, you see the Word of God held up in its rightful place. Over the next four weeks we are going to see "Four Marks of Revival" in Ezra 7-10. We look at this first mark of revival on Sunday: The centrality of the Word of God.
Ezra 5-6 | God's word...God's power...God's worship...In the grand scheme of life, you know what we need? More of God's word, and a deeper understanding of how it gives us all things for life and godliness. We need more awe of the power of God and how supreme He truly is. And we need to never lose sight that the end of all things is his glory and worship. Ezra 5 and 6 will give us the reminders we need on each of these.
Ezra 4 | As we continue our study of Revival and journey through the book of Ezra, we know there will be much spiritual opposition day in and day out. When we face spiritual opposition, we must trust God. Let’s dive into Ezra 4 to see what we do when we face spiritual opposition.
Ezra 3 | There is no revival of heart without revival of worship. Worship is the response of praise and adoration to God because of who God is. When the Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of the heart to see God for who he is, we cannot help but worship him for who He is. In Ezra 3 we will be reminded of the glory of who God is, why he is worthy of worship, and how worship of him is revived afresh in our hearts. Let's journey together through this great chapter as we look at four words to revive our worship.
Ezra 3 | There is no revival of heart without revival of worship. Worship is the response of praise and adoration to God because of who God is. When the Holy Spirit has opened the eyes of the heart to see God for who he is, we cannot help but worship him for who He is. In Ezra 3 we will be reminded of the glory of who God is, why he is worthy of worship, and how worship of him is revived afresh in our hearts. Let's journey together through this great chapter as we look at four words to revive our worship.
Ezra 1 & 2 | Our God is sovereign. Period. There is nothing outside of his sovereign hand and plan. In Ezra 1 & 2 we get to watch our sovereign God at work as he orchestrates his sovereign ways to fulfill his purposes for his glory and the good of his people. As we unpack these chapters, we will see how much a BIG understanding in the BIG sovereignty of God brings BIG peace and purpose in our lives.
1 Peter 4:7-11 & Matthew 18:15-17 | Conflict is one of the hardest things in this world to navigate. How should we go about trying to resolve conflict in a biblical manner? What if we were the party that was deeply wronged? What if we can say with a clear conscience we didn’t sin against the person that has brought conflict against us? We can let love cover. As we close our Undoing the Unlist series, let’s look at how the Lord teaches us to pursue reconciliation.
Psalm 42 & 43 | Pain and sorrow in life is inevitable. Where do we look when the waves of despair hit? How do we move forward? Thankfully, God gifted us the language of lament. Today we study Psalm 42-43 and the four elements of lament.
Psalm 62 | Life on this side of heaven is full of unmet expectations. Throughout our life we are met with the deep sense of things not being what we had planned or hoped them to be. The college choice has turned out to not be what we thought. The relationship with adult children isn't what you hoped it would be. You planned to be married by now. You prayed to have children by now. These unmet expectations can mark some of the greatest struggles and disappointments in life. How do we handle and where do we turn when life isn't what we expected? Let's turn to Psalm 62 for help and hope in the unmet expectations of life.
If someone asked you to describe how much Christ has forgiven you, what words would you use? Astronomically. Astoundingly. Indescribably. Infinitely. There are no words we can adequately grab ahold of to describe Christ's forgiveness extended to us. It's when we understand how deeply we have been forgiven that we will live a life of forgiveness toward others. My unforgiveness is a sign that I have never experienced Christ's forgiveness, or if I have, I have lost sight of how much I have been forgiven. We turn to one of Jesus' powerful parables on forgiveness for a deeper understanding of how those who have been mercifully forgiven forgive mercifully.
Luke 21 | This passage in Luke 21 implores us to always keep our eyes vertical, no matter what may come our way in life.
The gospel invites us to a lifestyle of confession. Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost. He came to save sinners. Because of this, we don't need to excuse sin or deny sin, but rather we can confess our sin to a faithful and just God and receive his forgiveness and cleansing. Join us as we turn to 1 John 1:5-10 to be spurred toward a life of gospel-motivated confession and away from a life of being buried in the darkness of our unconfessed sin.
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.”
James 5:13-20 | In typical field manual fashion, James ends his letter with pointed, practical help for a variety of situations in life. There is a word to the sufferer, the cheerful, the sick, and a call to pursue the wanderer. In it all, we see the power of prayer, praise, and pursuit. Let's end this study by gleaning the power of what James leaves us with as he closes out his field manual of authentic faith lived out.
James 5:7-13 | Time under tension builds physical muscle. How does the tension of life build our faith muscle? Let's unpack James command to be patient under suffering.
James 5:1-6 | Jesus cut it straight, "You cannot serve God and money." Period. If I am serving money I am not and cannot serve God. In James 5:1-6, James speaks a word to rich, oppressive unbelievers warning them that though they may have present riches, they are facing a future judgment. Within this warning he speaks of three indictments against them, and these three indictments serve as pointed warnings to us. Let's let God's word search us as we look together at three warnings money is my god.
James 4:13-17 Simply put, God's plan is better than our plan. Let's look at three things from James 4 that following God's plan requires.
Worldliness sets in so subtly. It can be hard to identify ways we have taken up a friendship with the world that is opposed to God. Though it may be subtle, it is deadly. We must wage war on worldliness and we have to know the battle plan God gives us to do so. James 4:1-12 gives us the answers to four questions we must know in order to wage war on worldliness in our lives.
If we lack wisdom we can ask God, and he will give it to us generously. But how do we recognize the wisdom from above? What are the characteristics of wisdom that come from God and how do we keep ourselves from falling into the counterfeits of a worldly, unspiritual, demonic "wisdom"? Fortunately for us, James gives us teaching this week to address this very thing. Together we will look at "Four A's to Aid us in Identifying Wisdom from Above.”
Have you ever said something you wish you could have back? Have you ever said a foolish thing at the totally wrong time? Have you ever opened your mouth to spew angry words when you knew you should be quiet instead? Why do we do this? Why do we so often say what we know we shouldn't? James tells us why. Today we look at four dangerously destructive truths of the tongue from James 3:1-12.
Do you have any Easter expectations? You may have not thought about that, but all of us carry expectations, big and small, for Easter Sunday. On the very first Easter Sunday three women walked to a gravesite with 2 expectations: A closed tomb and a dead body. Instead what they found would turn out to be the most life-altering, history-shaping, world-changing event of history. He was not there. He had risen. And EVERYTHING hinges on that good news.
Can a faith that has not changed us, save us? What would James say to the one who claims a faith in Christ but whose life shows no deeds to authenticate that claim? James is straight to the point with us: Faith without works is dead. This week we unpack the beautiful reality that a genuine faith will get expressed, not perfectly but patternly, in a life of obedient works to God. Let's let this text search our hearts this week to ensure the faith we claim is the faith we live.
People of this world get enamored with the rich, powerful, and celebrity. Often these people are preferred and pedestaled. Even as Christians, it can be easy to fall into playing favorites with those who carry a high social standing in this world. James warns us in this passage that doers of the word don't live like this. Marked by gospel shaped hearts, and motivated by Great Commandment love, genuine doers of the word shun a life of partiality and favoritism, and seek to love the hearts of people regardless of external appearance and socio-economic status. To cut it straight: Genuine Christians don't play favorites.
Our study in James last week made it clear that we are to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. This week, we’ll examine three practical things evident in the pure religion of doers of the Word.
James makes it very clear that we are to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. We see this theme all throughout Scripture. As we dive into James 1:22-25, let’s examine our hearts to see where we are being hearers of the Word, but not doers.
The Lord is zealous for the righteousness of his people. Man's anger does not produce God's righteousness. In his field manual of authentic faith, James helps us understand how wisdom calls us to a "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger life", how sinful anger is contrary to God's righteousness, and how we ultimately change by "putting away" what needs put away and receiving what we must receive.
James has already told us that God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt us. God is never the giver of evil and always a giver of God. This is where James goes next in his field manual of authentic faith. As we look at James 1:16-18 we will see that every good gift comes from an unchangingly good God whose goodness is most powerfully seen in the good news of the gospel. These three verses have massive implications in how we understand who we are in Christ and how this understanding impacts the way we live out our life in Christ.
John Calvin once said, “Our heart is an idol factory.” As we study James 1:12-15, one could also say that, “Our heart is a sin factory.” But there is good news. God is greater than any temptation we will face in this world.
Regardless of poverty or riches, the Christian's boast is in the same thing. Or maybe we should say the same one: Jesus Christ. In his field manual of authentic faith lived out, James quickly gets to the crucial call for Christians to boast not in their socioeconomic status but rather in their position in Christ. So whether poverty or riches, James will instruct us to boast in the reality of our position in Christ alone.
If James is a field manual of authentic faith lived out, it is fitting that he wastes no time at all getting to the topic of wisdom. Wisdom is God's will lived out. It's living out a godly life. So a life built on the wisdom of God is a life of authentic faith. But there is a problem; we don't always know the wise thing to do. On this side of heaven, we lack wisdom. James gives us the solution of what to do when we lack wisdom and how we carry that out. If you need wisdom right now in life, James 1:5-8 has a very clear direction for you.
Joy in trials? How is that so? And what does that mean? Are Christians to be gluttons for pain, taking joy in the hardship itself? Are we just to "grin and bear it" with no acknowledgement of the pain and hardships of life? Is James sticking a band-aid of a cliche on the deep pains of life? Not at all. James 1:2-4 is deep theology that allows us at Christians to rejoice in our trials knowing what God is ultimately accomplishing as we respond rightly to the troubles and trials of life. Let's be equipped together to joyfully endure the trials life brings.
God is after doers of the word. He is after us applying the principles of the Christian life in our day-to-day life. James is the field manual God has given us for what it looks like to live out an authentic faith. We begin our five-month journey in the book of James by looking at James 1:1 and letting that orient us to the book as a whole. Who wrote it? Who was he writing to? And what is this letter's purpose? We set the course this week for a study in a book that will deeply transform our everyday walk with Jesus.
Disciples are made as we pursue others the way God has pursued us. Let’s dive further into this pursuit and the ministry of reconciliation.
In the midst of such busy and stressful lives, how do we learn to rely on the Spirit’s life giving freedom? Let’s dive into Corinthians 3:12-18 to find out.
At the heart of our ministry lies this mission statement: To glorify God by making disciples. This isn't a mission we came up with but is a mission Jesus left us with in his teaching of the Great Commission. If we are going to make disciples and fulfill our mission, we better be able to answer some simple questions about disciples and discipleship. In this four week series, we tackle four basic questions, beginning with this one: What is a disciple? Let's look at what Jesus teaches in John 3 about the need to be born again as foundational to what it means to be a disciple of him.
At the heart of our ministry lies this mission statement: To glorify God by making disciples. This isn't a mission we came up with but is a mission Jesus left us with in his teaching of the Great Commission. If we are going to make disciples and fulfill our mission, we better be able to answer some simple questions about disciples and discipleship. In this four week series, we tackle four basic questions, beginning with this one: What is a disciple? Let's look at what Jesus teaches in John 3 about the need to be born again as foundational to what it means to be a disciple of him.
Let’s dive into the five features of the Parable of the Sower: the secret, the sower, the seed, the soil, and the success.
In two verses, Isaiah prophesies of the majesty of the child who would one day come as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He also in these verses shows us what will mark the Kingdom of this coming Savior-King. Isaiah 9:6-7 contain the truths our hearts need again this Christmas to behold the majesty of Christ and take hold of the marks of His Kingdom. These are two verses that will stoke the fire of our worship as we gather this Sunday, three days before another Christmas morning.
We see in Isaiah 7 that we are called to a faith in Christ to save, not a faith in man. But as we make our way through this passage, we’ll notice four things play out: a problem for God’s people, a plea for faith, a pious faithlessness, and a promise to faithfully save.
Of all the places in the world, it was Bethlehem that hosted the birth of the Messiah. Micah says, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel..." From this little place came the Christ. God, once again, working in an unexpected way in an unexpected place. The highest of Kings born in the humblest of places. Sunday we look at how an unexpected place brought us an unrivaled king who brings us unending blessings.
So many advent sermons are soft and sentimental. This is not one of them. We begin Advent in a passage that at first glance might not strike you as much of a Christmas passage. As we look at Genesis 3:15, though, I hope we see the cosmic war that was being raged as Christ came that holy Christmas night. I also hope we can see how the scriptures had already predicted and promised the winner of that cosmic war between God and Satan. Genesis 3:15 will show us how we can have ourselves a merry snake-crushing Christmas this year and why that is such great news!
Pastor Robbie Symons of Hope Bible Church Oakville leads us through a study of Isaiah 66:1-2, and the three character traits God promises to show favor toward.
Ok, here we are. The final words of Paul's letter to the Romans. The letter closes with a worshipful doxology, declaring that God is worthy of all glory forever. As Paul glorifies God, he reminds us of an important reality that we must cling to as we close this book: the gospel is not only the power to save us, it is the power to strengthen us as well. So as we close our series in the book of Romans, we do so with the strong reminder that God, who strengthens us in the gospel, is worthy of all glory forever.
You open to Romans 16, and what do you find dominating the first 16 verses? Names. 27 of them to be exact. It's easy to come to sections like this of Paul's letters and speed read through them. But we need to slow down here. What do all these names and descriptions tell us about a congregation and people known and loved by Paul? How does this section help us understand that all the gospel doctrine and ethics Paul has laid down in this letter are rooted in a deep love for the people on the other side of the letter? We have much to see here for how gospel doctrine gets lived out in the context of personal relationships within a congregation.
You open to Romans 16, and what do you find dominating the first 16 verses? Names. 27 of them to be exact. It's easy to come to sections like this of Paul's letters and speed read through them. But we need to slow down here. What do all these names and descriptions tell us about a congregation and people known and loved by Paul? How does this section help us understand that all the gospel doctrine and ethics Paul has laid down in this letter are rooted in a deep love for the people on the other side of the letter? We have much to see here for how gospel doctrine gets lived out in the context of personal relationships within a congregation.
Paul had an ambition to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been named. In other words, Paul lived with a passion for the gospel frontiers. He wanted to go to the places where the gospel had yet to go and announce the good news of Christ there. In this week's passage, we see Paul's eyes fixed on a new gospel frontier of Spain. As we walk through this together we want to pull out four factors for forward movement to gospel frontiers. Let's let God's word fill us with a greater zeal for the gospel frontiers in our day where the gospel must go forward!
Why witness? How should we witness? This morning we unpack the heart of witness—We witness to the glory of God, so the lost can experience our glorious God.
In the church at Rome there were some conscience controversies:"Should we eat that or not? "Should we drink that or not? "Should we celebrate that day or not?"In our congregation today there are unique matters of conscience as well. Last week we looked at Five Gospel Unifiers for us on matters of conscience. Those Five Gospel Unifiers from last week lay a foundation for us to build on as to how we practically live with one another in these matters. Today we tackle this by looking at Romans 14:13-15:13 and from this passage will make 3 resolutions to love my neighbor in matters of conscience.
It is evident how much Paul wants to drive home the reality that people who have come to believe the gospel will now live lives marked by gospel-empowered love. In this passage, Paul summarizes that to love is to fulfill the law. He also helps us see that walking in love and walking in the light go hand-in-hand. Let's look together at what a gospel-empowered life of love and light looks like.
It is evident how much Paul wants to drive home the reality that people who have come to believe the gospel will now live lives marked by gospel-empowered love. In this passage, Paul summarizes that to love is to fulfill the law. He also helps us see that walking in love and walking in the light go hand-in-hand. Let's look together at what a gospel-empowered life of love and light looks like.
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities..."Crickets.Really? But Paul, do you have any idea what our governing authorities are doing? Certainly this doesn't apply to us in the political climate we are in, right? Well, let's take a look at what this passage says. It is very clear. The Word here has important truth for us to understand in the political climate we live in and this election season we find ourselves in the throes of. There is no better passage for us to understand what it looks like for us to live as gospel citizens as it relates to how we live subject to our governing authorities. Buckle up...here we go.
Paul comes to what we call a "rapid fire" section of his letter. A series of commands and instructions that come quickly and pointedly in Romans 12:9-21. Though it is rapid fire, they aren't entirely disconnected. Verse 9 serves as a proper header for these verses around the theme of genuine love. Last week we looked at what genuine love for one another in the body of Christ looks like. This week we tackle what genuine love for our enemies looks like.
Paul comes to what we call a "rapid fire" section of his letter. A series of commands and instructions that come quickly and pointedly in Romans 12:9-21. Though it is rapid fire, they aren't entirely disconnected. Verse 9 serves as a proper header for these verses around the theme of genuine love. This week we look at what genuine love for one another in the body of Christ looks like. Next week we will tackle what genuine love for our enemies looks like.
As Paul moves to his instructions for what a life shaped by the gospel looks like, he begins with an appeal. His appeal is that his readers would live as sacrifices to God. What kind of sacrifices are we to be? How does this define for us what true worship is? What would prevent us from becoming these sacrifices? What is the catalyst that leads us to this kind of gospel-shaped sacrifice? All this is answered in two really important verses of this book.
As Paul moves to his instructions for what a life shaped by the gospel looks like, he begins with an appeal. His appeal is that his readers would live as sacrifices to God. What kind of sacrifices are we to be? How does this define for us what true worship is? What would prevent us from becoming these sacrifices? What is the catalyst that leads us to this kind of gospel-shaped sacrifice? All this is answered in two really important verses of this book.
Noah's Ark. This remarkable story of a catastrophic, global flood where God's wrath is poured out on the utter depravity of the world. And yet, God's mercy and kindness is all over this story as he preserves some through an ark-shaped vessel of his mercy. As we look at this story, I pray we see both the fullness of God's wrath toward wickedness, and the riches of his grace and mercy. Most of all, may we see how this global flood points us to gospel glories!
It is time to come back to the Lord. There are times we run from God. Sometimes those are blatantly obvious by the outward expressions of our life. Other times everything looks good on the outside, but we are spiritually cold on the inside. In 1 Kings 18 we see a showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal that turns the people's hearts back to the Lord. As we walk through this story together, there are three things we need to see and act if we need to return wholeheartedly to the Lord as well.
In Numbers 22-24 we find an entertaining and humorous story about a king, a pagan prophet-for hire, and a donkey. The donkey is significant because God makes the animal speak in a human voice, which is why this story is so memorable. But the story is not really about the donkey. This story is all about our God who is faithful to keep His promises. And His greatest promise, a coming Savior, was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises of God find their Yes!
In Romans 11:25-36, Paul reveals the fuller picture of God’s plan of salvation by explaining the “mystery” that in the end, “all Israel will be saved.” He goes on to focus on the centrality of God’s mercy in the salvation of all the elect, both Jew and Gentile. Finally, in concluding this section of his letter to the Romans, Paul writes a doxology in which we are reminded that this entire plan of salvation is designed specifically for God’s glory. Our salvation isn’t the ultimate goal; God’s glory is.
God's ways are not our ways. We see this throughout this section of Romans. God is doing a great work for maximum redemption of both Jew and Gentile, and he is carrying that out in a way he knows is best. Paul says a remnant of Israel has been chosen by grace, the rest have been hardened, but we see in this week's passage how God is using even that hardening for greater salvation for Jew and Gentile alike.
Romans 10 ends a bit heavy with these words Paul quotes describing Israel's heart, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." This leads him to begin chapter 11 with a really important question: Has God rejected his people? The answer to that is an emphatic no. God is redeeming a remnant of grace from within Israel while he is hardening the rest. But even God's hardening has redemptive purposes of which we will uncover as we make our way through Romans 11. This Sunday we sit in the glorious realities of grace and, Lord willing, will leave with deeper gratitude for the grace of God.
Romans 10:14-21 | Romans 10:14-21 helps us learn our next step in rightly responding to the good news. This passage is pivotal in shaping our understanding of what must take place in order for lost sinners to be saved by God. It is also a crucial text for supplying believers with passion and urgency to share the gospel. Through this passage, we see how God graciously breaks down the excuses we tend to make to neglect our next steps of obedience. He does this to lead us into the delight of obedience so that He may be glorified. God, be magnified through our obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The anthem over all of Romans is that the gospel is the power of God to save all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. As we come to Romans 9, we see Paul's burden for the Jewish people who are still lost and have not believed the gospel. He raises an important question: Has God's word somehow failed? Is God's promise to save not powerful enough to save so many Jews still lost? Paul's answer to this is massive as it teaches us in some of the clearest language in all the Bible of the power and beauty of God's providence to save those he is calling to himself.
The anthem over all of Romans is that the gospel is the power of God to save all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. As we come to Romans 9, we see Paul's burden for the Jewish people who are still lost and have not believed the gospel. He raises an important question: Has God's word somehow failed? Is God's promise to save not powerful enough to save so many Jews still lost? Paul's answer to this is massive as it teaches us in some of the clearest language in all the Bible of the power and beauty of God's providence to save those he is calling to himself.
The anthem over all of Romans is that the gospel is the power of God to save all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. As we come to Romans 9, we see Paul's burden for the Jewish people who are still lost and have not believed the gospel. He raises an important question: Has God's word somehow failed? Is God's promise to save not powerful enough to save so many Jews still lost? Paul's answer to this is massive as it teaches us in some of the clearest language in all the Bible of the power and beauty of God's providence to save those he is calling to himself.
Romans 8:31-39 | In Christ, we are more than conquerors. But how? As we find in Romans 8:31-39, we are more than conquerors because of God, and four specific things he has done for us.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Those words hang as the headline of hope over Romans 8. The rest of the chapter unpacks this reality leaving us with a deep abiding assurance that those words are true. As we turn to verses 9-17 this week we see that now free from condemnation, we have life in the Spirit and our adoption as children of God is sealed by the Spirit. You never have to wonder again how deep the Father's love is for you!
The joy Romans 8 evokes in the heart of a believer is through the roof. There is now no condemnation in Christ. This means Jesus has removed all of the curse and penalty, and this includes the curse over our minds. We now walk in the Spirit with our minds set on the things of the Spirit. So what does it mean that our minds are now set on the things of the Spirit? How do we cooperate with the Spirit in the setting of our minds? What is the amazing fruit that will be born in our thinking with our minds set on the Spirit? We will talk through all of those from Romans 8:5-8 this week.
The 20th-century London preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "Someone has said that in the whole of the Scriptures the brightest and the most lustrous and flashing stone, or collection of stones, is this Epistle to the Romans, and that chapter 8 is the brightest gem in the cluster. The most moving chapter in Romans is this chapter 8." How fitting that we begin Romans 8 on Resurrection Sunday. This week we will worship deeply over this great truth: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
We have died to the law through Christ. But won't that kind of thinking lead us to more and more sin? No, quite the opposite. To be dead to the law is to be wedded to Christ, and to be wedded to Christ is to bear fruit for God. How does all this work together? Paul tells us as Romans 7 begins.
We are dead to sin! The good news of the gospel is that we have died with Christ and in dying with Christ we are dead to sin. But we have been raised with Christ as well! And in being raised, there are some beautiful things we are now alive to. One of these things we are now alive to is righteousness. We are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. How do we know what we are truly slaves to? What characterizes someone who is now a slave to righteousness? What does slavery to righteousness lead to? These questions get answered as we finish Romans 6 together today.
If we are in Christ, we are dead to sin. What does it look like to lay hold of this reality and live in light of it? This week, as we continue in Romans 6, we will look at the promise, the perspective, and the practical instruction to live in light of the reality that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
Only two options can be true of our lives. We are either still in Adam or we are now in Christ. We are either still in sin or have been made righteous by Christ. We are either dead in that sin or have been made alive in Christ. In this section of Romans, Paul brings to bear the cancerous reality that in Adam sin has spread, infecting all of us, leaving all of us under its terminal death sentence. But a Greater Adam has come...and this Greater Adam has reversed the curse. And once we are in Him we move from sin to righteousness, from bondage to grace, from death to life. Are you still in Adam, in your sin, and subject to death-OR- are you in Christ, made righteous, enjoying his everlasting life?
Romans 5:6-11 leads us to rejoice for a number of reasons! God’s unconditional love has met us in the worst of our sin! God has initiated rescue for us when we were weak and could initiate ourselves. In rescuing us God saves us from the wrath to be poured out. He also saves us into eternal life with Himself where there are pleasures forevermore. All of this is made possible because of the blood Jesus spilled for us out of His love! Allow this passage to lead your heart into a place of rejoicing!
In the last section of the letter to the Romans, Paul has been hammering this reality that we are justified (or declared righteous) by faith. Chapter five starts with this really important word, "Therefore..." With this word, Paul now will begin to unpack the blessings that flow from the fact that we have been justified by faith. In Romans 5:1-5 we are going to see, understand, and worship over three blessings for those justified by faith. Last week we looked at the first two blessings, this week we look at the third blessing for those justified by faith.
In the last section of the letter to the Romans, Paul has been hammering this reality that we are justified (or declared righteous) by faith. Chapter five starts with this really important word, "Therefore..." With this word, Paul now will begin to unpack the blessings that flow from the fact that we have been justified by faith. In Romans 5:1-5 we are going to see, understand, and worship over three blessings for those justified by faith.
The driving theme of this section of Paul's letter is that righteousness comes by faith. In Romans 4, Paul is leaning on Abraham's testimony to illustrate this truth to us. He has said, "Even Abraham was declared righteous by faith!" He reminds us it wasn't by his circumcision, and this week we are going to see him declare that Abraham's righteousness wasn't by law-keeping. It was by faith. This passage teaches us as well that righteousness is counted to us not by law-keeping but by faith. Our hearts will be freed into the joy and rest of this reality as Romans 4:13-25 comes to bear on our hearts.
The human heart wanders in restlessness until the moment it sees the glory of Christ. We were made to behold the glory of God and the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God is seen in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). From the very first angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus, there is glory packed into this description of who this coming King is. We want to see the glory of Jesus in this birth announcement and then let that lead us to respond accordingly. Our hearts will overflow with joy when we look again at who he is and why he has come.
It's December. We are gearing up for the celebration of Christmas. For many of us, we love this time--the family, the friends, the food, the fun. In the midst of the buildup for Christmas, we want to ask a really important question: What would make this Christmas the most Christ-exalting Christmas we have ever experienced? Let's look at a godly couple at the beginning of Luke's gospel who can help prepare our hearts for a Christ-exalting Christmas.
Justification by faith. God is leading Paul to hammer home this essential message of the Christian faith: One is made righteous before God by faith. He has brought it up in every paragraph in this section of the letter, and he will hammer it home by showing in chapter four how even Abraham was justified in this way. Romans four is a gift from God to take us into a deeper understanding of this essential doctrine, and we will begin our study by looking at Part One of these "5 Must-Know Truths of Justification by Faith."
I don't know who said it first, but I do remember clearly when I first heard it said: A gospel that has not changed us has not saved us. Boom! It sat on me with clarity and conviction. This message of a righteousness that has been won by Christ, through his atoning sacrifice on the cross, and extended to us as a gift of grace WILL produce change in our lives. It will! As we come to the end of Romans 3 we see how this is the case. Last week we looked at gospel-powered unity. In part 2 this week we see how the gospel powers urgency, unity, and lives lived righteously.
I don't know who said it first, but I do remember clearly when I first heard it said: A gospel that has not changed us has not saved us. Boom! It sat on me with clarity and conviction. This message of a righteousness that has been won by Christ, through his atoning sacrifice on the cross, and extended to us as a gift of grace WILL produce change in our lives. It will! As we come to the end of Romans 3 we see three clear ways the gospel practically will impact our lives. Today we look at the first of these: Gospel-powered humility.
"But now..." With those two beautiful transitional words we get a gospel soundtrack shift in the letter to the Romans. Paul has written to them of man's wickedness which deserves God's wrath. He has announced that there is no one righteous, no not one. But now...gospel hope! But now...we are told how we are made right with God! As we walk through Romans 3:21-26 we get the answer to life's biggest questions: How are we made right with God?, How has God accomplished this?, and What does this tell us about the goodness of our God? These verses are packed with joy-filled hope for every human heart.
In Romans 2 Paul made some pretty startling claims for a Jewish listener. They weren't ultimately saved by their lineage or their rituals, they needed a circumcision of heart. As Romans 3 begins, Paul anticipates their pushback and speaks to it. Within this we hear beautiful teaching on God's faithfulness, man's total unrighteousness, and a crescendo of hope for how God's faithfulness makes a way for unrighteous man to get right with him.
It is easy to read the end of Romans 1 and think, "Yeah, go those ungodly and wicked people, Paul!" And then you turn to Romans 2. In Romans 2 Paul goes after the self-righteous person who is equally defiant to the gospel. Self-righteousness is dangerous. Deadly. It is a silent killer because it leaves its suspect thinking they are righteous because of their externals all the while living with a dead heart inside. We must reject a facade of righteousness of our own making and receive the righteousness of Christ that comes by faith. This message serves as a "self-righteous detector" in our life to turn us to the righteousness found in the hope of the gospel.
In Romans 1:18 Paul said, "The wrath of God is revealed..." He said is revealed, not will be revealed, but God's wrath is revealed. There is a present nature to God's wrath toward the ungodly and unrighteous. How so? How is God's wrath being presently poured out on the unrighteous. The answer is what we find in Romans 1:24-32, and it has to do with the repeated statement, "God gave them up..." God's wrath is being revealed against the unrighteous in that he is giving them over to what they want. What are the three things mentioned that God gives the unrighteous over to? Today we pick it up with the third of these statements, the unrighteous given up to a debased mind.
In Romans 1:18 Paul said, "The wrath of God is revealed..." He said is revealed, not will be revealed, but God's wrath is revealed. There is a present nature to God's wrath toward the ungodly and unrighteous. How so? How is God's wrath being presently poured out on the unrighteous. The answer is what we find in Romans 1:24-32, and it has to do with the repeated statement, "God gave them up..." God's wrath is being revealed against the unrighteous in that he is giving them over to what they want. What are the three things mentioned that God gives the unrighteous over to? Today we pick it up with the second, the unrighteous given up to dishonorable passions.
In Romans 1:18 Paul said, "The wrath of God is revealed..." He said is revealed, not will be revealed, but God's wrath is revealed. There is a present nature to God's wrath toward the ungodly and unrighteous. How so? How is God's wrath being presently poured out on the unrighteous. The answer is what we find in Romans 1:24-32, and it has to do with the repeated statement, "God gave them up..." God's wrath is being revealed against the unrighteous in that he is giving them over to what they want. What are the three things mentioned that God gives the unrighteous over to? Why is that such a tragic reality? What is the hope for those who have been given over to these things?
Paul has given us his thesis, his big idea, in Romans 1:16-17. Now he begins his beautiful, air-tight, logical unpacking of that thesis. We now embark on the beautiful journey to see Paul unpack the glorious gospel of God. But where does he start? He starts where much of our contemporary culture tends to avoid when talking about God. Paul begins his gospel-unpacking with a look squarely at the wrath of God revealed against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We will make our way through Romans 1:18-23 by unpacking four questions to help us understanding the God's wrath revealed.
Romans 1:16-17. That great locker room pep talk kind of passage that gets us fired up for the gospel. That calls us to an unashamed life built on the gospel. But do we understand why we are not ashamed of the gospel? Have we looked deeply at what Paul says here as to the reasoning for his unashamedness of the gospel of God? Only when we see these things in this passage will our locker room passion for the gospel transcend into boldness on the fields of lostness in our actual day to day lives.
Who are you? Why do you exist? Whoa, those are some pretty big questions. When you introduce yourself, what are the important things you say that describe who you are? When you think about your "life's work", what comes to mind? In the greeting to this letter we learn how Paul describes who he is and we see this major purpose of his life that captures why he is writing this letter to the Romans. As we look at these truths and get introduced to this letter, it will help us define who we are as well and this great purpose we have here to the glory of God.
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for our study. This is why we give ourselves to preaching the whole counsel of God's word, and it is what makes us extremely excited to begin our study in the Book of Romans. Romans has been called the "crown jewel" of the New Testament. Down through church history we have watched the powerful work of the Book of Romans to see sinners saved, to help the saved rest in their salvation, and to sanctify God's people for greater Christ-likeness. We begin our series by getting acquainted and introduced to the riches of this book. Lets pray and ask the Lord to use our study of Romans to accomplish in our hearts all he desires to accomplish.
God is so gracious. He has lavished his grace on us, and we like that. Sometimes, though, he lavishes his grace on people who have hurt us, we are struggling to forgive, or frankly we just don't think deserve to be treated very graciously by God. As God poured his grace on Nineveh, Jonah got angry. Jonah's heart struggled with the grace poured out on such wicked people. As we look at Jonah 4 this week, we will see that God's grace extended to those we find hard to love can either harden or soften our hearts. Jonah's heart is hardened, we want our hearts to be softened...God's word can show us how.
The book of Jonah is a powerful account of the pursuing, restoring grace of God. From beginning to end, we see God's grace at work to pursue the hearts of those far from him or those running from him. In Jonah 3, we will watch revival sweep over the city of Nineveh, and from this will see four realities of revival. These four realities will prepare us for a revival in our own heart, posture us to be ready for revival, and will lead us to pray for revival.
The book of Jonah has four clear parts:
1) A Runaway
2) A Recommissioning
3) A Revival
4) A Response & A Reproof.
All of these parts announce to us the deep grace of a good God. This week we look at God's grace to recommission Jonah a second time to what he got wrong the first time. Our God gives a do-over here. He gives a second chance. We will see what the road to a recommissioning looks like and the grace of our God who extends a second chance to get right what we at one time got wrong.
Did you ever run away from home as a kid? Why? What was going on that prompted that? As we begin the book of Jonah we begin with a runaway story, God says go East and do this, and Jonah instead heads West to avoid that. Jonah chapter 1 will show us three words that describe the hard path of someone running from God, and yet we will also see a beautiful display of the grace of God that runs hard after those running from him.
God is holy. Those three words have weight. In the words of AW Tozer, "God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural [person] is blind to it. They may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness they cannot even imagine. Only the Spirit of the Holy One can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy.” Throw the book of Isaiah, let's approach the unapproachable, attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible and attain the unattainable.
We know that God is king, but what does that mean? If we could see God in his majesty, how would that change our lives? This Sunday we look to Psalm 93 to understand more deeply the majesty of God and the impact understanding his greatness has on our lives.
God guides his creation in ways that are both seen and unseen. He is kindly directing and perfectly working his plan for both his glory and for our good. Because of God’s sovereignty, we look ahead, trusting wholeheartedly and humbly accepting that God is skillfully carrying out His plan in His own manner and timing. We worship as we look forward, holding fast to God’s promises and His character, knowing that He’s working all things for His glory and our good.The sovereignty of God also compels us to reflect in awe and worship at how God, through His wisdom and kindness, made good on His promises and managed to knit everything together for His glory and our good. This divine sovereignty pushes us to reflect on God’s character and accomplished work.
In the classic book Knowing God, J.I. Packer writes, "No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind than thoughts of God...But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it." We begin our God-ness of God Series with our eyes pointed squarely on the attributes of our God. We start with a look at his love. As we sit under the love of God, may our hearts be both humbled by his great love for us and expanded to sit in wonder of what a loving God we have.
What does it look like to live for Jesus? What is it about His love for us that compels us to live for Him? In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul defines why Jesus’ love for us is so compelling that we respond by living a life dedicated to glorifying Him. Join us as we dive into the incredible love of Jesus and the calling He gives all of His followers to be ambassadors for Him.
There seems to be a connection in scripture between the work of the Holy Spirit and the joy of the believer. Followers of Jesus are to be a people marked by a prevailing joy. The Holy Spirit is working for our joy in the Lord. We need to understand the connection between the Holy Spirit and our joy in Christ. Let's look at this together.
The Spirit is always working for the greater good of the body of Christ. He gifts every person who is in Christ with gifts that we are to use to build up the body of Christ. What are the gifts the Spirit has given you? How do you know? How does God want those gifts exercised? What is at stake whether we do or don't exercise the gifts from the Spirit?
In the Bible we see people described as being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5 lays out a command for us to be filled with the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? What does a life full of the Spirit look like? How might we hinder the fullness of the Spirit in our lives?
In Galatians 5 we see Paul advocating for believers to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This was during a time when they were being taught that walking by the flesh is your way to salvation. God has provided a way of justification through faith that should lead to an overflow of walking by the Spirit. He also presents a warning to abstain from the flesh. Walking by the Spirit and not by the flesh will produce the best results in our life.
Last week we established the truth that the Holy Spirit is fully God as the third person of the Trinity. This week we turn to this awesome reality that this Holy Spirit dwells in us as followers of Jesus. We need to know that, and we need to know the ministry the Holy Spirit is actively working as he dwells in us. This is where we turn our attention this week.
We all want to walk deeply with the Spirit. We want to live a Spirit-filled life. We want to know the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We begin a series seeking to understand the Holy Spirit and what life in the Spirit looks like. Before we can understand what life in the Spirit looks like we must understand who the Holy Spirit is. This is where we focus to kick off our series.
It all hinges on this massive truth: Jesus rose again. If Jesus has not risen, our faith is futile. If Jesus has not risen, we are still dead in our sin. But the body laid in the tomb on Friday was not there on Sunday. The angel declared, "He is not here, he has risen!" So we gather this resurrection Sunday to see that the tomb was and is empty, and to celebrate the salvation he has won for us.
In John 17, we see Jesus praying. Through his prayer, we get to see his heart displayed. Christ is intending for his ministry to bring God glory, he is desiring that his people keep his Word, and he requests that God make us all one. This week we learn about the unity that comes with being in Christ.
Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples to abide in Him. Today, Jesus continually invites us to abide in Him. But how do we practically abide? What does an abiding walk with Christ look like? What does an abiding walk with Christ produce? These are questions we dive into this week as we seek to grow at loving God and loving others. The key element to this love is that we would abide in Christ.
For roughly three years the disciples followed Jesus wherever He went. Now Jesus tells them He is going somewhere they cannot go. This is troubling to them, and we can understand why. They left everything to follow Him, now He is leaving? Knowing their hearts were troubled, Jesus brings before their eyes five truths that can untrouble the most troubled hearts. We dive into these this week as anchors to cling to when our hearts are troubled, as well.
Jesus did something absolutely shocking at a dinner with His disciples. It was a radical act of love, but one that He called them to make normal in their lives as followers of Him. Jesus took the place as the lowest servant, and He calls our lives to the same thing. This is counterintuitive to the wisdom of the world and grates against the way of the flesh, and yet Jesus says blessed are we if we follow Him in this.
Jesus does something surprising. He waits for a beloved friend to die so that all can see that He is the resurrection and the life. What we see in John 11 is the most powerful spiritual reality we must come to terms with, culminating in a question we all have to answer, "Do you believe this?" So we look to hear what Jesus has to say and see what he has to display as The Resurrection and the Life.
Jesus is both the door we enter for abundant life and the good shepherd we follow for abundant life.
Have a spiritual conversation with someone and ask them questions like this:
"What does it mean to seek the light?"
"What is eternal life?"
"What is truth?"
Answers will range wildly with all sorts of ideas, opinions, and theories. The beauty is, though, if we want to know what light, life, and truth look like, we need only to look to Christ. In this teaching, Jesus shows us that He is the light, life, truth, and then definitively declares He is God! To know these truths and live in light of these truths has massive implications in our lives.
What really is so amazing about grace? When we see our sin for what it is, and we see His love for us in the face of our sin, we truly will be amazed by grace. This week, we look at a story of Jesus's grace lavished on a woman caught in her sin. What does the grace of God look like personally applied to us in the face of our fallenness? We find out together in this passage.
Talk about the best object lesson in the history of the world, Jesus fed over 5,000 people and then used it to teach us who He is as the bread of life. In His teaching, we find five truths that apply to us when we believe in Him as the bread of life. These truths will lead you to be saved if you don't know Christ, can lead you to know that you are saved if you are wrestling with that, or will simply drive your rest in Jesus and worship of Jesus to an even deeper place.
In John 5, we see another sign that points to the authority and divinity of Jesus as He heals a man on the Sabbath. According to Jewish law, though, a mere man did not have the authority to do this work on the Lord’s day. But Jesus isn’t just any man… He is the Lord Himself. This week, we learn about a miracle Jesus performed that shows that He is one with His Father, the Giver of eternal life.
When was the last time you came to Jesus with a desperate request? I mean desperate ... when there was no hope unless Jesus was to intervene. This is where we find a dad before Jesus in this story. Jesus is going to do something miraculous in this man's son to accomplish something even more miraculous in the whole family's hearts. We, in full faith, are believing Jesus to do the same in us through this story this week.
How does someone known in their town as a sinful social outcast get transformed in one day to be used by God as a catalyst for revival? Answer: She met Jesus. Our look at the story of the woman at the well will bring our hearts to deeper worship of Jesus, which will overflow in a life of passionately witnessing to others about Him.
You must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. That's it. There is no more important truth in your life than this. You must be born again. So how do we know if we are born again? And if we aren't, how is one born again? This is the most important truth to have settled in your soul.
John tells us his purpose for writing his gospel: that we would see Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, we would have life in His name. We look this week at the first of these signs Jesus performed at a wedding in Cana. The sign itself is amazing enough, but then when we see why Jesus performed this first, it will lead our hearts to a deeper place of faith and worship.
If you could have all the blessings God can give without God's presence, would you be okay with that? This is what the Israelites were faced with. God has made a way to lead them to the promised land, promised protection from enemies, and laid before them a land flowing with milk and honey, but there was one major problem. He said he wasn't going with them. They knew that was a disastrous word. Would we know that as well? This Sunday, we look at five reasons we are desperate for God's presence in our lives.
While Moses was quite literally on a mountaintop moment with God, the people back in the camp turned to another god. The golden calf idol of the Exodus story isn't just some crazy act of an ancient people, but rather everything about it reveals how our hearts make idols. More importantly, this chapter also helps us know how to break these idols. This Sunday, we look at how we make idols so that next Sunday, we can understand how we break them.
The instructions for the tabernacle are clear, but who will build it? God clearly tells Moses whom He has called for the work and how he has empowered him for the work. We might not be called to build a tabernacle, but there is work God has called us to, and if God has called us to it, He has empowered us for it. Let's find out how together!
The high priest was a big deal throughout Old Testament history. He was the one who had access to God in the Holy of Holies. He was the mediator between the holy God and His covenant people. This week, we unpack the roles of the high priest and the garments he wore to reflect the glory of God. And we see the life-changing connection that Jesus came as a new, greater High Priest, so that we will forever be reconciled to the heart of our loving Heavenly Father.
The tabernacle communicates something remarkable: a holy God delights to dwell with sinful people. This is truly remarkable. What is even better news is that we see God making a way to dwell with His people in all of history. This week we take a deep look into the tabernacle and how the elements show us God's desire to manifest His presence among His people. We will also see how each element of the tabernacle points us to Jesus Christ as the greater Tabernacle.
What do you do when you come to the large sections of the Bible that list a bunch of Old Testament laws? Have you skipped past them? Be honest! Have you skimmed them with the thought that there really isn't anything in there for you? We absolutely know that we are saved by grace through faith and not through law-keeping, but why is there so much in the inspired Word devoted to the law? What if God's law shows us God's heart?
What has been your relationship with the Ten Commandments? Are they merely a list of rules? What do they mean for us who have been redeemed on this side of the cross? If all of them have been fulfilled by Jesus, and we are now in Christ, what importance should they have in our life? We continue Part 2 of our study on the Ten Commandments seeking to understand what marks a community of God's people that love Him and love others.
What has been your relationship with the Ten Commandments? Are they merely a list of rules? What do they mean for us who have been redeemed on this side of the cross? If all of them have been fulfilled by Jesus and we are now in Christ, what importance should they have in our life? This week we seek to define the relationship between the ten commandments given to God's covenant people then and what they mean for us as His covenant people now.
After the Israelites' departure from Egypt, we find them camped out in the wilderness, looking up at Mount Sinai, and waiting for God to speak. The Lord calls to Moses from the mountain, and Moses must deliver a message to the people: to obey the covenant they will receive from the Lord. Exodus 19 tells the middle of the story between God's deliverance of Israel and Israel's dwelling with God.
Exodus 18 reveals a foundational truth to our faith. After a period of conflict, Moses shares a conversation with Jethro, a Midianite whose faith was not in God, but Jethro acknowledges the power of God on the journey of the Israelites. We learn through this chapter that people of wisdom declare God as the one true God and guide us as we guide others to believe the same.
We have seen God's leading of His people, but it is good to know that as God leads, He does so by providing and protecting. All of our provision comes from the Lord, and all of our protection is ultimately found in the Lord. We see the provision and protection of the Lord over His people in this week's passage, and it should bring deep worship, comfort, and trust to our hearts.
At the pinnacle point of the exodus from Egypt, we see how a good and mighty God leads His people out. As we study this, the Word of God will unpack for us six faith-growing truths of how God leads. This is a catalytic study for us to grow our faith in following our good and mighty God.
The command to remember is important to God. Again and again, in His Word, He tells us to remember what He has done and how he has saved us. This remembering of the past has the power to help us faithfully follow His leading in the present. This week, we see how God has called us to remember His saving work in the past and follow His leading in the present.
Who do you really believe is in control of your life? In this passage God will show his authority over life and death through the passover. As we examine each Passover element, we cant help but see Jesus, which leads us to greater worship!
God will inflict ten mighty plagues on the land of Egypt. What is his purpose of the plagues? What is He declaring? Is this just some cat-and-mouse game He is playing with Pharaoh? No, this is massive. In the sending of the plagues, God is saying something powerful we all must hear and heed.
Obey God and everything in life is easy, right? Well, not quite. Obedience is a blessing for sure, but we need to define what that means. Oftentimes, obeying God can make life heavier and criticism from others harsher in the near term. So why obey? Because He is worthy and because the blessings of obedience always outweigh the costs. Exodus chapters 5 and 6 are a great teacher of this.
The greatest need of the human heart is to bow in wonder and worship at the greatness of God. Exodus chapters 3 and 4 are a gift to this end. This week, we tackle part two of the sermon: Our Great God.May God lead us to a place of reverent worship over who He is.
The greatest need of the human heart is to bow in wonder and worship at the greatness of God. Exodus 3 and 4 are a gift to this end. This week, we tackle Part 1 of The Greatness of God asking God to lead us to a place of reverent worship over who He is.
A season of suffering is awful. A season of suffering with no hope of its end in sight is worse. The circumstances of suffering are hard, but it is even worse to have no hope that the suffering will end soon. What do we do when we are here? Where do we anchor our soul for rest, worship, hope, and peace? In this week's passage, there are four verbs used to describe God in the midst of His people suffering with no end in sight. These four verbs are anchors for our soul when we are in the midst of suffering that just won't cease.
It is not enough to know things about God. We must know God. A.W. Tozer wrote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." This is emphatically true. Who is God? And how do we know Him? And how does He interact with us as sinners and sufferers? As we embark on our study through Exodus, we set out on a journey to know our God. What we will find is that our God is a God who sees us in our bondage and delivers us from it so He can dwell with us as we worship Him. As we see Him for who He is, may we respond like Moses who worshipfully bows in his presence.
What is the heart of God toward those who wander? Have you ever been so focused on the task in front of you that everything else fades so far into the background and you miss something important? In Luke 15, Jesus responds to the grumbling of the Pharisees: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus tells three parables that reveal what they missed, leading us to ask: “What is the heart of God toward those who wander?” And more importantly, “Do you have it?”
There is a lot of wisdom packed into just a few short verses. In the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl of Great Value, God reveals that when we live with open hands and faith, we can discover the priceless gift of His Kingdom.
This week, we dive into a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee approached God with a "holier than thou" attitude, saying, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." The tax collector, though, begged for God's mercy to save him from his sin. Through Jesus's words here, we learn that self-righteousness and godly righteousness are very different.
What if a 60-second story Jesus told has the power to change how you love people for the rest of your life? In one of Jesus's most famous parables, The Good Samaritan, he replies to a lawyer's question, "Who is my neighbor?" with one of the most powerful truths of what a life of love for people looks like. Hear what a life of loving our neighbor as ourselves truly looks like lived out.
What if God doesn't always act fair as we define fairness? And what if that is really good news for us people desperately in need of His generous grace? Let's rest together in a parable that unpacks for us truly the generous "unfairness" of the grace of God.
This week, we took a look at the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Luke 14:7-11. In this section of God's Word, He reveals a truth that is so critical for our culture. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Why is it that a group of people can all hear the same things from the Word of God and have vastly different reactions to it? Why is it that the Gospel for some is the greatest news they have ever heard and for others, the offense of it makes them deeply angry? This week, we look at the Parable of the Sower and gain a deeper understanding of how the Word of God is heard by hearts in different places. This parable also gives us the opportunity to ask, "Which of these soils might describe my own heart?"
How do you find contentment? This passage tells us godliness with contentment is great gain. How do we experience that life of great gain? In this passage, we will unpack the heart, threat, pursuit, and practices of one who is living a life content in the Lord.
Honor seems to be a big deal to God. Three times in this part of 1 Timothy we are told to honor certain groups of people in the household of God: widows, elders, and masters. This week, we look at what it looks like to honor the authority God has put over us in the church and in the workplace. To obey God by honoring those He calls us to ultimately honors Him as the Most Honorable One. So let's look together this week at how to honor elders and bosses.
From cover to cover in the Bible, this is very clear: God has a huge heart for the care of widows. In this week's passage, we get clear instructions from God's Word on how the widows of our household are to be cared for. If this is such a big deal to God, it must be a big deal for God's household. Let's understand what all this passage says so our hearts match God's heart in the care of our widows.
One of the most beautiful and often taken for granted times is when the many generations of a family gather together. The joy of a loving family interacting cross-generationally often turns out to be some of our riches memories in life. If we are a family as God’s household, we must know how the gospel shapes us to interact cross-generationally. This week’s passage guides each generation of the family to love one another like family.
We all desire to be good servants of Christ, but do we know the costliness to which a good servant of Christ is called? Are we prepared for the life of diligence and discipline Jesus calls his servants to? Do we know what we must train in to steward the call to follow Jesus? Empowered by His grace, we look at the High Call To Christ’s Servants.
Paul warns that in later times some will depart from the faith and be led astray by gospel undermining lies. This later time he talked about is our time now. What are the means of grace God has given us to cling to truth in the whirlwind of lies? This passage will guide us into the pillars of truth in the whirlwind of gospel undermining lies.
What comes to mind when you hear the word deacon varies widely based on your past church experience: from never having heard the term, to viewing deacons as those that care for the facility and provide food, to experiencing the deacons as the governing body of a church. Paul wrote this letter to Timothy so that “you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Timothy 3:15) So regardless of our past experiences, or even church tradition, we want to ensure we are following God’s model for the role of deacon in the household of God. And what we will find when studying the text of 1 Timothy 3:8-13, and also looking at a story in Acts 6:1-7, is that when deacons serve well in the household of God, needs are met, the Word is proclaimed, and the body is unified.
Our entire faith hinges on the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead. More than that, though, our entire life hangs on this fact. If Jesus has not risen, there is no hope. Thanks be to God for a Risen Savior! It is this resurrection of the Savior that demands a proper response from us. Let’s respond and celebrate together this Easter the hope provided by our Resurrected King.
Healthy households have healthy leadership. The household of God must be led by leaders God calls and qualifies for the task. So who are the overseers of the house to be? And how do we know who is qualified for the task? These seven verses from 1 Timothy provide the answers for us.
In the church of Ephesus there was a charge for men and women to pray. In
verse 8 Paul turns from men and women and specifically targets the men to
step up and pray everywhere in the church. The men were lacking in this
area because they were not praying when needed. There were issues taking
place in the church where the men would look to argue instead of Pray. As
we key in on this one verse we see Paul address the Men of Ephesus to turn
from quarreling and lift holy hands in prayer, challenging all men to be
praying men.
Have you ever been at a restaurant when the server walks by with a fresh tray of fajitas? The steam rising off of the platter. The scent of deliciously marinated meats and peppers wafting past. The crackling sizzle of the hot plate. I swear they walk through the whole place just so everyone else wants fajitas too. Seeing that food when you’re this hungry, makes you want to choose it.
This is the call for every Christ-follower. We are called to pray and live in such a way that others are drawn to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers are charged to live with gospel magnetism. Open up to 1 Timothy 2 as we see 3 factors that will help equip us and motivate us to live a life of gospel magnetism.
With a succinct and simple power, John Newton, the writer of the famous hymn Amazing Grace said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
This week we will see, in the course of three back-to-back, beautiful paragraphs in the book of 1 Timothy that this is in fact true: We are great sinners. Christ is a great Savior.
This simple gospel truth can never depart from the center of the household of God, and so once again we set it as the centerpiece and let it lead us to worship our God.
Every household has some expectations that the head of the household lays out. These expectations are to guide and promote what that household will look like when it is operating at its best. As the head of the household of faith, God lays out for us he desires his household of faith to function. In 1 Timothy we take a deep dive together in seeking to understand what it looks like to "behave in the household of faith." Nothing is more important than your life with Jesus, and one of the most important realities to your life with Jesus is you being part of a healthy household of faith. We begin the journey together to seek to hear God's heart for what this looks like in deeply practical ways.
Imagine if all you ever had was lukewarm water. Never a cold cup of water to drink. Never a hot shower to be refreshed. Just lukewarm all the time. In this last letter, Jesus addresses a church lukewarm in state. What exactly does it mean for this church to be lukewarm? How did they get there? What does Jesus say about it? And how in his grace does he seek to call them out of it? What a letter for us to hear and heed at the close of this series together.
Download the final week of The 7 Churches resource here.
This is the most important question we can ask: "Jesus, what pleases you?"
The answer to that is everything. There is nothing more important for us personally and for us as a church than to continually ask that question.
As Jesus records a letter to the church at Philadelphia, he declares how pleased he is with this church. There is nothing in the letter in which he calls them out, just pure commendation from the Lord. So the question is, "What pleased Jesus in Philadelphia?" And then just as important, "How do we follow their lead to be a church pleasing in the sight of Jesus as well?"
Download Week 07 of The 7 Churches Weekly Resource here.
Some churches look alive. They...look...alive.
And yet Jesus would look down with an autopsy and say, "You are dead."
In the letter to Sardis, it is a sobering reality to hear that a church can have the reputation of being alive and yet be dead. Now, here is the hope: in this letter, Jesus gives a spiritual CPR plan for a church on life-support and ends the letter with this beautiful picture and promise of life for his conquerors. Only Jesus can start a letter to a dead congregation and end it in such triumphal language of life.
Download Week 06 of the 7 Churches Weekly resource here.
Where there is a great work of God happening among the people of God we must watch out for wolves seeking to attack that work. The church at Thyatira was thriving in good works to God's glory, but there was one problem, and it was a big problem. There was a wolf in their midst teaching and seducing the church into things that grieved the Lord. How did Jesus call them to handle this? How did Jesus himself say he would handle it? Let's look together at this letter and seek to grow in keeping good works while not tolerating bad wolves.
Download the 7 Churches Week 05 Study Resource here.
It takes Spirit-given courage to hold fast to Christ in a cultural current that is often flowing strongly against the will and ways of Christ. And yet, even in the midst of that courage, it is easy for us to compromise. How do we hold courageously to Christ without compromising what we believe or how we behave? Jesus has some heavy and hope-filled words for the church at Pergamum we need to hear as well.
Download the 7 Churches Week 04 Study Resource here.
Has following Christ proved to be costly in your life? Or to ask it another way: Are you prepared for following Christ to one day prove to be costly? In the Letter to the Church at Smyrna, the Lord encourages them in their costly faithfulness. Their allegiance to Christ has cost them much, and Christ warns will cost them even more in the days ahead. In this letter, we are called and equipped for the costly faithfulness following Christ demands, and we are reminded why that costly faithfulness is eternally worth it.
Download the 7 Churches Week 03 Study Resource here.
It is a scary reality that we can be zealous for defending what is good, pure, and right and yet have left the love we had at first. The church at Ephesus is commended for their protection of purity and patient endurance, yet they are called out by Christ for their abandonment of love. This is such a big deal Jesus threatens to remove their lampstand. What does this mean? What must we learn? How do we heed what Jesus has to say to his churches through this letter? And where might we need to remember the love we had at first, repent where we have left it, and return to the things we were doing before?
Download the 7 Churches Week 02 Study Resource here.
If Jesus walked into our service on Sunday, climbed the stairs, and took the microphone how would we listen to what he has to say? I pray that after picking our faces off the floor in worship, we would lean forward and cling to every word he had to say. The fact is, Jesus is in our midst as Lord and he is speaking to his churches. This week we will see him for the Lord he truly is and prepare our hearts for what he has to say to his churches in the seven letters that begin the book of Revelation.
P.S. Each week of this series we will put out a study resource written by a different voice in our church. This weekly resource will include 5 days worth of study material in the passage of Revelation from the week before. Download this week's resource here!
Our current cultural context can partially be summarized by the phrase “the exaltation of self”. And this week, we see Jesus speak a parable that runs counter to this current cultural moment as well as our fleshly instincts. Specifically, Jesus teaches us that the position of disciple requires the posture of a servant. And as a servant of God, we are to do whatever is commanded; we are to focus on our duties and not on ourselves; we are to serve because this is our duty, and we are to find our worth, not in our accomplishments, but instead in our relationship to our Master who is God. What a privilege that God, our Heavenly Father, invites us to be His servants. There is no greater honor than to serve Him.
For the past month or more, you’ve been inundated with Christmas movies, Christmas music, Christmas parties, gifts, and the celebration of the Advent of Jesus Christ. And what a tremendous celebration it is! But once the calendar flips from December 25thto December 26th, routine sets back in. The gifts are all open. The wrapping paper has been stuffed into trash bags. Things get back to “normal” and you start thinking about Monday or next week.
We’ve rightly spent most of December focused on the birth of Jesus Christ, but what comes next? In this sermon, we’ll go from the first weeks of Jesus' birth to the first weeks of Jesus’ ministry. What happens when Jesus makes an impact, not just on Christmas morning, but every morning? We’ll look at the faith of 5 unnamed men who met Jesus and walked away changed forever.
At Christmas time we sing about joy, we decorate with the word joy, but do we stop and really meditate on why the birth of Christ is so paramount to joy in the human heart. When the angel burst on the scene announcing the birth of Christ, he announced good news of great...? Joy! So let's look at this announcement together and understand fully how the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem allows joy to abound in the human heart.
The love of God can be one of those things that we overlook or get too close to and not see the power and beauty behind it. Like visiting the Grand Canyon over and over again, after a while, it can lose its draw. We grow calloused with God's love. But let us not let a knowledge familiarity keep us from experiencing the depth and height and width and length of the amazing, awe-inspiring, life-transforming love of God.
Peace. A longing of every human heart, and yet found to be so elusive by so many. Anxiety is skyrocketing, the headlines are the antithesis of peace, accomplishments pursued yet peace not found. Where do we look for peace? In a place? A position? A posture? Or in a person? The Advent season reminds us to truly take to heart the fact that Jesus is our peace but practically what does this mean?
This time of year gets busy. All of the normal rhythms to our year can get thrown around as the calendar flips to December. There are extended school breaks on the horizon, Christmas parties to attend, annual traditions to look forward to. This is great fun and yet can mean life gets pretty busy. In the midst of that busyness, we long to keep Jesus at the center of our worship this Christmas. Together we will seek to do that very thing this Advent season. As we begin the advent series, we look to the hope that came to us in Christ coming to earth. How does the coming of Christ inform how we hope and who we hope in?
We are in a war. When God's people seek to live the way Ephesians calls us to live, we will be confronted and affronted by the schemes of the enemy. There is a spiritual realm and there is a spiritual war. God has given us His armor for this war and has equipped us to know what battlefield to drag these spiritual wars onto.
How does the gospel come to bear on your work? I don't just mean that you are looking to share the gospel at work, I mean how does an understanding of the finished work of Christ inform the way you work? The gospel shapes how you come under the authority of others in the workplace. The gospel shapes how you lead with authority over others in the workplace. This week's passage shapes what it looks like to bring the gospel to work.
As we continue in our verse-by-verse series through Ephesians, we’ve entered a section dealing with relationships dynamics in the home. And this week, the parent/child relationship is up!
Let’s be honest – parenting is hard! Sleepless nights caring for the physical needs of infant babies turn into sleepless nights waiting up for teenagers to come home by curfew. So much of parenting is difficult, but it is so, so good. Every second you invest and every effort you make is worthy of the time and energy.
In talking with parents, most feel like they’re doing a bad job. It’s like baking a cake that you have to wait 25 years to see if you put in the right ingredients and the cake keeps deciding stuff for itself. If you open the oven and look today, of course, it’s still gooey in the middle! It’s not fully baked yet.
So let’s start with this question: how do you honestly evaluate your parenting? What is it that makes you feel like you’re doing a good job? Or a bad job? More importantly, what do you really want for your children? And what environment is going to cultivate it?
What makes the home spiritually healthy?
Marriage is a beautiful representation of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. It was intended by God to be awesome and beautiful, and it's worth the work we put in to pursue the vision God has laid out for our marriage. Ephesians 5 lays a foundation for us to elevate the wonderful calling God gives husbands and wives and also gives us a roadmap for our marriages to be all God desires them to be.
All of us have heard the repeated refrain, "Time just goes so fast." The longer we live, the more and more we know that to be true. As imitators of God, we are to walk in wisdom, making the best use of the time. So what does that look like? How do we make the best use of time as people walking in wisdom? This week God's word will guide us into evaluating how we are doing at this.
We're talking about our walk with Jesus. Practically, what does the walk, or life, of a Jesus follower look like? This week we unpack 3 pretty clear characteristics of our walk with Christ. We are to walk in love, in the light, and in wisdom. Let's let God's word guide us into what that looks like in our daily life.
They say a tiger can't change his stripes. That a leopard can't change his spots. These sayings (actually derived from an Old Testament passage) are used to mean that one cannot change his or her essential nature.
Tigers are always tigers and will always act like tigers. Leopards are always leopards and will always act like leopards.
We think this about ourselves and other people sometimes. "I'll always be like this." "This is just who I am." "He'll never change."
In many ways, it's probably true...but what if a tiger was no longer a tiger? What if a tiger became something entirely different? What would it do then?
And what if WE became something totally different, what would we do then?
Open up to Ephesians 4 this week and find out.
Here we are. After six years of meeting in a school, we gather together in the place God has given us to use as a sending base for the mission he has called us to. How should we think about this place? How do we live stewarding what is ultimately His in the ways he ultimately wants. We take this first Sunday in the sending base and cast a vision for a common understanding of how we faithfully steward this wonderful Kingdom tool God has given us.
We are unified as a body of Christ by the seven "ones" we looked at last week, and yet we are made up as a diverse community with diverse gifts that are to be used and stewarded for the building up of the body. Together let's step into an understanding of how this unified body we call the church thrives when we all bring a diversity of our giftedness to it.
The body of Christ is beautifully unified with a diversity of gifts. When we understand what unites us and how the diversity of our gifts are to operate in that unity, we experience all God intended us to experience as a member of his body. Over the next two weeks, we will dive deeply into this unity of body and diversity of gifts.
We all need spiritual power, and where else can we turn for spiritual power other than the God of all power. As Paul moves us from the doctrinal rich first part of the letter to the wonderfully practical second part, he prays for spiritual power for Jesus followers who will read this. We join in the petitions and praise of this prayer as we walk through it this Sunday.
Paul unpacks the ministry God had given him to steward to make the mystery known that Jews and Gentiles are fellow heirs together through the gospel. In doing so, he helps us understand 2 things that are worth it for us today in making the gospel known.
Ephesians 2 began with this beautiful paragraph of how God has taken us who we were in our spiritual deadness and given us life in Christ. This paragraph is so beautiful that it can overshadow the beauty of this next paragraph connected to it. Christ has not only demolished the dividing wall between us and God, Christ has demolished the dividing wall between believers as well. Let's rejoice together at how Christ, by his blood, has truly made us one in Christ.
When we remember where we were before Christ we rejoice all the more in where we are now in Christ. The bad news of who we were pre-Jesus makes us worship over who we are now in Jesus. Let's walk through and worship together seeing this as we walk through the gospel in a paragraph.
It's one thing to know doctrinal truths in the head, it's another thing to see them with our hearts. Coming out of the riches of the doctrine that is ours in Christ, Paul has a prayer for these believers. His prayer is that God would open the eyes of their heart so they will see these truths and in seeing these truths they would know three things with certainty.
Blessed be God!
Life is about this. God is the center and source of everything. He is supreme over all, and He is worthy of us blessing or praising him with all of our beings. If we need some kindling to stoke our praise, let's walk through this wonderful, worshipful run-on sentence Paul begins Ephesians with and lets it lead our heart to cry out in praise to Bless God for all He is and all He has done.
Living life as a Jesus follower is like trying to diet when no one else is. You are trying to eat right, meanwhile, your wife decides to pick up baking as a hobby. It's almost impossible to resist, therefore it requires the right discipline and encouragement to stay away from temptation. This week in 2 Timothy 3 and 4, we see Paul encouraging Timothy to live a Godly life during godless times. The hope is that we can be encouraged by this to stand for Jesus in times such as ours. By doing this, we will honor God and be the appropriate light to the world in which we are called.
The last message in our summer Beatitudes series.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Jesus bookends His Beatitudes message with reference to the kingdom of Heaven and encouraging His followers to "rejoice and be glad" when they face persecution. But what is persecution? How are we to respond and how can we respond with joy?
The goal of persecution is to silence the witness, but the Lord gives us power to overcome fear for His glory.
When we live as peacemakers, we live true to our identity as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father who is the ultimate peacemaker. So how do we step into the character God is crafting in us to be people who make peace? And where do we need to be true to live out this identity in our lives right now?
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."
The fifth Beatitude statement from Jesus' Sermon on the mount. What does merciful mean and how can we cultivate a heart of mercy?
As the Rolling Stones say, "I can't get no satisfaction..."
That one line summarizes so much of the human existence. What brings satisfaction in this world? And why does it seem so much of what we pursue in hopes of being satisfied actually leads us to be more dissatisfied? What if satisfaction is not found in pursuing satisfaction but in the pursuit of something else?
Jesus tells us the secret, so let's look at it together.
What is meekness? It's actually kind of hard to pin that question down. It's increasingly hard when we swim upstream in a culture where meekness is often disregarded. So what is meekness? We have to get at it because the meek receive a beautiful inheritance. It's an inheritance we don't want to miss out on. So let's pursue an understanding of meekness and this inheritance Jesus promises will be theirs.
Consider for a moment those times in life when you feel alright –when you feel at peace. What are the conditions that cause that or allow for that?
Next, think about the times in your life when you don’t feel alright –when you don’t feel at peace. What’s gone wrong?
Now, for our final query, how much time do you spend trying to be in the first category and not the second? If you’re like most of us, you spend much of your waking energy trying to build a life that keeps you feeling alright and at peace. We want to be ok. We want to live at peace.
So imagine the shock and surprise you’d experience if Jesus walked up to you and turned that all around by saying, “Happy are those who experience deep sadness.” It’s counter-intuitive and it goes against everything we’re striving so hard for. How could it possibly be true?
The Blessed Life
What is the blessed life? We will define what it means to be blessed based on the value system of the kingdom we identify with. So what kingdom do we identify with? And if it is the kingdom of God, we might be surprised to hear the very opening line of how Jesus characterizes who a blessed one is. There is major encouragement in what he says for those who know their deep spiritual poverty and need.
The greatest story ever told is the story of God’s desire to dwell with His people, and to redeem them from their sin. In Revelation 21, we learn the end of this epic story, the fullness of redemption. In the world we live in where headlines and hardships can weigh heavily upon us, getting our eyes to the end of time will provide us with the hope and motivation we need to press on as disciples of Jesus in a broken world.
We've talked about what 4W lives look like, but what does it look like when God gathers and unifies 4W lives to make up a 4W church? What characterizes a church like that? We look to the church at Antioch in the book of Acts to take our cues of what we can look like as we seek to faithfully live out God's calling of being a 4W church.
Our passage this week demands a response. All Bible passages do, but we feel the intensity of Paul's logic as he flows it out in Romans 10. How will people believe in what they have never heard? How will they hear unless someone tells them?
The answer: They won't.
But they must.
So we must go with the gospel.
How did Jesus say that the world would know we are his disciples? By our love for one another. When we talk about working for Christ here at Redeemer we are talking about the stewardship of all God has given us to lovingly and sacrificially serve the body of Christ.
In 1 Peter 4, we come across a back-to-back-to-back list of one another's that can shape the way we work for Christ. What could happen if these 3 "one another's" took root in our hearts and shaped the way we lovingly and sacrificially serve the body?
Walking with Christ is the daily rhythm of abiding in Christ that leads to increasing Christlikeness. So what does this abiding look like? How do we walk in a way that abides? Thankfully Jesus invites us into the joy of an abiding walk with Him, and He teaches us what that abiding looks like. Let's gather around John 15 and let Him call us into a vibrant, abiding walk with Him.
Check out these Walk resources to dive deeper into what it looks like to walk with Christ.
Worship.
What is it? We all have this general sense, but then you go to define it and it can be hard to encapsulate in a string of words with a period at the end.
Followers of Jesus are worshippers of Jesus. We must have an understanding of what it means to worship him. Fortunately for us, Jesus met a worship-thirsty sinner at a well one day and convicted her of her wrong worship, taught her on right worship, and offered himself to her as the means and end of her worship.
And so we get the joy of letting Jesus meet our worship-thirsty hearts, convict us of any wrong worship, define what is right worship, and enjoy him as the source of the living water our hearts long for.
Check out these Worship resources to dive deeper into what it looks like to worship Christ.
We know we are to love God. And we know that we are to love him with a wholehearted love. We strive toward this as we grow in our walk with Jesus day by day, that we would love God more today than we did yesterday. That our love for him is deepened more next week than it was this week.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to be falling more and more into a wholehearted love of God.
Here at Redeemer, our whole mission is to glorify God by making disciples. We say that disciples of Jesus worship Christ, walk with Christ, work for Christ, and witness for Christ. These 4 W's are more than core values for our church or catchy slogans to paint on walls. These 4 W's define what a life of wholehearted love and devotion for God looks like. So this Sunday we begin our series called "The 4W Life" to seek to become the wholehearted, all-in, fully devoted lovers of God and people that Jesus calls us to be.
Jesus is alive!
So what should that mean? If Jesus is truly alive, and if every heart is to worship him as a resurrected savior, what kind of responses should we have to this fact? Maybe more strongly, what response does a resurrected Christ demand from us?
In Matthew's gospel, we get clear direction as to what the response should be to the resurrected Christ. As we gather to celebrate Resurrection Sunday, let's be equipped to live out the responses a resurrected Christ demands of us.
As Jacob comes face-to-face with his brothers, what will his reaction be? I mean these are the guys who sold him and sent him on a 13-year journey as a household servant and prison sufferer. If you were coming face-to-face with people who led you into over a decade worth of pain and heartache, what would you say? What would you do?
Joseph's response is shocking. Really shocking. What we see from him is the response of someone who was able to maintain a soft heart through many decades of pain. How did he do that?
It has to do with his understanding of the providence of God. What did he understand? What do we need to understand so we too can preserve soft hearts through life's pain?
In the deepest valleys of life, we hold on to the truth that God is with us. But it's important for us to ask... So what? Why is it good news that God is with us in the deep valleys of life?
As we continue in our study through the life of Joseph, we see that he is still in the valley. He's still in the prison. And it gets worse for him in Genesis 40. Through it all, we know that God is still with him. And we're going to study today why it's good news that God is still with Joseph... and still with us in the deepest valleys of life.
Question: Where is God when life is at its worst?
Answer: Right. With. Us.
I know that is easier to know in our head than it is to know in our heart when life is at its absolute worst. When the deep valleys come it's easy to ask: God where are you? Why so silent? Why aren't you moving in this?
This week we watch as Joseph goes from the position of a prized son to a prison sufferer. In this decline, where is the Lord? Well, there are a few reassuring statements that tell us where God is in the valleys and that God is at work through the valleys.
What does it feel like to be weak, wounded, and wrestled to the ground by God? Jacob knows, and it changed the way he walked through life. We need to know what this is like as well.
There is no prevailing without first having been weakened, wounded, and wrestled by God. Let's come together ready to "leave with a limp" from our study of this passage.
The schemer gets schemed.
Jacob has been wheeling and dealing, scheming and dreaming, conniving and thriving (or so he thinks). He is about to meet his match in uncle Laban.
Genesis 29 begins a series of events in which Laban and Jacob battle and scheme against each other. God is bringing Jacob face to face with one like him in the hopes of breaking him from his scheming and bringing him into a place of trust.
God is good to allow us to meet our match in life in order to break us from the scheming of our ways and invite us into a complete trust in the Lord.
Have you ever found yourself making deals with God? "God if you... then I will..."
We find Jacob trying to make a deal with God while he is on the run from family drama in Genesis 28. Even after the Lord offers him the free gift of His mercy, Jacob still tries to scheme his way into blessing. What can we learn from Jacob, and where do we need to change "God, if you... then I..." deals into "God you have... so I will..." surrender?
If you experienced any kind of sibling rivalry growing up, I'm willing to bet it doesn't hold a candle to Jacob and Esau.
These twin boys were born to Isaac and Rebekah, and from the womb, they would war with one another. As they grew, some circumstances led to the intensity of their rivalry as well.
What was this all about? What was God doing in and through the lives of these twins? What do we learn about Jacob, who one day will have his name changed to Israel, paving the way for this family to become a nation?
The promised son has come, the promised family is growing, the promised nation is on the rise. This week we watch as God unites Isaac with his wife, Rebekah. What is especially interesting is how God does it and who He uses to find a wife for Isaac.
We are going to watch a faithful, unnamed servant of Abraham fulfill one of the most important roles a dad could ever entrust to another. As we watch this faithful, unnamed servant in action, we are going to learn 6 facts of faithful servants that we can live out in our own lives as well. In God's economy, faithfulness is much more important than "famousness".
We hate uncertainty. Uncertainty can be disorienting, confusing, and discouraging. We long for clarity! We long for certainty!
But where then, if everything is clear, easy, and certain, is faith?
Sometimes God takes us down a path where we know the destination, but we have no idea how we're going to get there. Even worse, it can sometimes feel like obeying God will take us further from the blessings He promised.
If you've ever experienced that, you're in good company. After finally giving him the child of the promise in Isaac, God is going to test Abraham's faith. We'll see how he responds this week as we continue our study in the book of Genesis.
At times believing whatGod has promised can be hard. What's often even harder, though, is trusting Him for when that promise will come to pass.
For Abraham and Sarah, they have been waiting on a promise.
And waiting...
And waiting...
But sure enough, this week we see that God will always do what He says whenHe says it is best.
So how about you? What promises are you waiting on from the Lord? How are you doing in the waiting?
Ever done something you shouldn’t have done?
And then ever done it again?
We all know those things we should have handled differently, and then we know the feeling when we make that same mistake twice. This week we watch as Abraham repeats a mistake he made in the past. What’s so interesting to see is how God meets Abraham’s sin with total unmerited favor.
What do we have to learn about how to avoid making the same mistakes twice? And what do we see of how God lavishes unmerited favor even in these mess-ups?
Genesis 19 could come with a warning like "This message is rated R for violent and sexual content."
There are a few chapters of the Bible that bring out the complete and utter depravity of the human condition apart from a Savior and this is one of them. In this chapter, we see four important things we must understand: Wickedness, Wrath, Mercy, and Judgment.
We will watch as God's wrath is poured out in judgment on the wickedness of Sodom, but we will also see His deep mercy to spare Lot from that wrath.
We'll learn how these 4 things work in our lives as well (Wickedness, Wrath, Mercy, and Judgment), and rejoice in the greatest news of how God has made a way for us to escape His wrath and embrace His mercy.
How do we stay grounded in a world unhinged from the truth? How do we find peace when life seems unsteady? What hope awaits the faithful believer? Is there a better way to live as Christians than what has become “typical” in American Christian circles?
These are questions believers need to know in a postmodern culture that screams truth is relative. It appears that at every turn the world tells us to look inward when what we desperately need, more than ever, is someone outside of ourselves. We need a Savior.
Let’s delve into the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to John and seek greater clarity on these questions!
Make the choice right now.
Right now.
Before 2021 even begins, make a conscious decision: I will choose joy in whatever comes.
It's easy to choose joy when all is well, it's harder to choose joy when things aren't. But we can be joyful in all things because the trials and troubles of life are God's time-worn path to an enduring, growing, thriving faith.
If 2020 taught us nothing else, it should have taught us that with trials and troubles come a great opportunity to grow. And guess what? As much as we don't want to admit it, you know what is coming in 2021? More trials and troubles.
So choose right now for 2021: Joy in whatever comes!
Have you ever been homesick? You know what that feels like. The pit in your stomach, the weight in your chest, the longing to be back with who you know and what you know.
As Christians, we live with a sense of homesickness. We want to be with Jesus. And yet, ours is hope-filled homesickness. Why? Because we are people living between the Christmas coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. The Christmas coming fills us with hope. The waiting for the second coming fills us with homesickness.
So how are we to live as people between the two comings of Christ? What characterizes the life of the hope-filled homesick?
Waiting.... waiting.... waiting....
Even just seeing the word might stress some of us out. Waiting! I don't know many people who would say they really love to wait. Think about being put on hold during a phone call. Think about the days of dial-up. Think about traffic or waiting in long lines at the store. I'm guessing most (if not all) of these things don't bring happy and pleasant emotions.
But what do we do when God says wait? How are we to respond when we're waiting on the fulfillment of God's promises in our life? And what if it's in the waiting that God wants to do some deep work on our hearts? How would that change the way we view the waiting?
Join us as we dive deeper into the life of Abraham and see together how God used the waiting in Abraham's life.
There is a saying we use when we feel the time has come for us to get something done ourselves: "I'm taking matters into my own hands."
Often, we say this when someone else who was responsible isn't doing things as quickly as we would like, but what happens if we do this with God? Are there times we take things into our own hands that God never asked us to take? And what tends to be the outcome when we do this in life? On the heels of an unforgettable, faith-building covenant ceremony, Abram is going to have an epic faith-fail. What can we learn from Abram and Sarai taking matters into their own hands that might help us from making the same mistake?
For the fourth time God will promise Abram that his descendants will be too many to count. Four times God has been saying it without Abram seeing it. Finally, Abram basically says, "Can you prove it? How do I know this?"
God delivers. In Genesis 15, God delivers with what we can look at as a really bizarre and bloody scene, and yet what God is communicating is one of the most powerful pictures of His commitment of faithfulness to a faithless people.
What is this bloody massacre? What does it mean? And how is it one of the most powerful pictures of God's gospel commitment to His people?
Genesis 14 introduces a rather mysterious yet important character throughout the Bible. His name is Melchizedek, and well, we really don't know that much about him.
But he's mentioned again in Psalm 110, and then again in Hebrews 7 where he is connected to Jesus.
In fact, we are told that Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. So who is this mysterious figure introduced to us in Genesis 14? And how does he give us a glimpse into a greater picture of who Jesus is?
We took a break from our Genesis series to spend time in Romans 5 + 6. We'll get back to Genesis next week!
It's hard to leave places you know to go to places you don't know. It's even harder to leave the people you know to go to people you don't know.
And yet this week, we walk with the father of the faith as he trades the known for the unknown and obeys God by faith. In our walkthrough of Genesis 12, we are going to find "4 Ways to Be Equipped to Live a Life of Faith". Without faith it is impossible to please God, so let's gather Sunday and let God's Word equip us for a life of living by faith.
A group of people set out to build a city and a tower to make a name for themselves.
God wants them to scatter in faith to multiply His image. They want to stay together, comfortable, and safe. God wants them to live lives making His name famous. They want to make their names famous.
The story of Babel is a story of God's grace to intervene in the lives of a people who want to preserve self and exalt self. We need the Lord to intervene in our lives in the same way. This message is an investment in us running from lives of safe, comfortable, self-exalting disobedience and toward lives of faith-filled, uncomfortable God-exalting obedience.
There is something subtly dangerous that can happen with the "big stories" of the Bible. You know, those ones you'll find in every children's Bible, David and Goliath...Daniel and the lion's den...Joseph and his coat of many colors...
The subtly dangerous thing is to get so caught up in the acts of the people of God that we lose sight of God's actual work in the story. This week we continue in one of those famous "big Bible stories," Noah and the Ark. What we need to see in this is God's character and God's power on display. He is the hero of the Bible, and He is the hero of the flood account, and we need to see that and respond to it properly.
And so we walk through Genesis 7-8 and see what we need to understand about who God is, how He works, and how we as His people are to respond with our lives to these truths.
It seems like the world is getting worse by the year. More compromise. More sin. Fewer and fewer people following God. Even those who used to follow God have been falling away.
Sound familiar?
This is the world in Genesis 6. We’re now 10 generations after creation and the world is getting worse with every passing one. What is God going to do? And how should we respond? Come this week as we dive in and continue our series in the book of Genesis.
Once sin starts things get ugly. Sin unchecked gets brutal. From the story of the very first sin last week, we now see the evil escalate as the blood of a murdered man at the hands of his brother cries out before the Lord.
As the people multiply on the earth, the image of God does not. And this was not God's intent. What happens in this gruesome scene? How will God deal with multiplying people who are not multiplying His image? Where do we see His redemptive heart come out, and how is that good news for us?
The murder of a brother in Genesis 4 teaches us more about our own hearts and the heart of our redeeming God.
Genesis 3 is ugly. Humans rebel against God. That never goes well. Rebellion against God never makes life easier, better, simpler... it always makes life more painful.
As we watch the first-ever sin unfold this week, we will be able to glean important things we need to know about life in this broken world. Where does sin originate? How does sin work? How is sin defeated?
And yet in the midst of the ugliness of Genesis 3, there is beauty. We get the first glimpse of the gospel. Good news. It's there, so clear, all the way back in Genesis 3. An arrow of God's grace pointed perfectly at Christ.
Let's worship our way together through the gruesomeness of sin and the graciousness of our God.
We can get out of balance so fast on the topics of work and rest. On one side, we can begin to worship work as God, instead of seeing work as worship to God. Out of a desire for more, to make a name for ourselves, or to run from other responsibilities in our life, we can become workaholics to our own demise.
On the other side, we can tend toward laziness or complaining about work and fail to see what a good gift from God work is.
What should the rhythm of our week look like as it pertains to work and rest? What do I, as a Jesus follower, need to understand in order to honor God in my work? And just as importantly, how do we receive God's gracious gift of sabbath rest each week?
Let's seek a worshipful rhythm to our weeks of work and rest.
The human being is unique to all other created things. Only the human was made by the very breath of God breathing life into his nostrils. Only the human being was made in the image of God. Humans (men and women) are made in a unique way with a unique purpose in creation.
We must understand how God made us so we can understand what we were made for. In Genesis 2 we will look at 4 identity-defining truths for image-bearers. It is my prayer that these truths will free us into a rich and wonderful understanding of who we are and what we were made for.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The greatest story ever told begins with these words: In the beginning...
Beginnings matter.
Understanding the beginning of the world matters.
Understanding how the world was created matters.
Understanding why the world was created matters.
And most importantly, understanding what the Creator created us for matters.
This Sunday, we embark on a major series through the book of Genesis. Like all good stories, we will start at the very beginning. We'll worship our way through the Creation account and why a right understanding of it matters deeply for our lives as created ones.
Check out our resource on the historical nature of the book of Genesis HERE.
Have you ever used the phrase “where the rubber meets the road?”
It’s a fascinating idiom. It’s first credited to Firestone Tires in the 1950s, though it’s possible it was used earlier than that. It couldn’t have been too much earlier though, because the automobile manufacturers hadn’t been too concerned about traction or tires until around this point.
Cars were getting bigger. Faster. More powerful. More maneuverable. Yet, all that power and engineering came to a single (or four) point(s) of contact - the tires. Literally everything about a car is channeled to where the rubber meets the road. If there’s a failure there - no amount of horsepower matters.
In our final parable of this series, Jesus encounters a brilliant expert in the law. He knows everything that he’s supposed to know - and can parse it out at a moment’s notice. What Jesus will ask him next, however, will reveal whether he’s got it where it counts. He’s got the knowledge. But what happens when the rubber meets the road?
The Prodigal Son...
Many of us are familiar with the story. And oftentimes as we read or recount this story, a lot of attention is put on the younger brother. His wasteful living. His lostness. His rebellion. His reckless and wild decisions. But what if the older brother is just as lost and rebellious as the younger brother? And what if the story of the prodigal son is not even primarily about the sons?
What does this story have to do with my life today?
Let's get ready to hear from the Lord together through one of the most amazing stories Jesus told.
This week we are in Luke 14:15-24. We'll focus on the Parable of the Great Banquet and how the banquet is an invitation from Christ. This invitation is not to be ignored but acted upon. Christ calls us to say "yes" as well as share the invitation with others so that they may come to experience this great banquet with Christ.
May we all be full with more of Him.
Imagine you’re a teenager. Your mom has just left you at home alone for the weekend and you’re in charge of the house. You can’t believe you finally get to decide for yourself what to do. The possibilities are endless! Mom has just a few chores for you. Of course, you can decide when to do them, but they will obviously need to be done before she gets back.
What’s your first move? Do you get right to the chores? Do you go off and have a good time and hopefully remember in time? Or do you just decide to forget about it and hope you don’t get into too much trouble?
We’d all probably agree which of those is the most responsible choice. We’d probably also agree that we wouldn’t all have chosen that one!
But what do you think you would choose today? And what does that have to do with your faith in Jesus? Join us this week as we continue our study in the parables with “The Parable of the Talents” from Matthew 25.
This week we will begin a 6-week journey into the parables of Jesus by digging into the Parable of the Dishonest Manager found in Luke 16:1-13. This parable may be one that you have read several times and yet still don’t fully grasp. But when we are finished, it is our prayer that the way we view the money and possessions that God has entrusted to us will be forever and eternally changed.
There was a day where you didn’t get something new until the last one was broken? I know, I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true. You didn’t wait in line for a new phone while holding a perfectly good phone. You didn’t buy a new computer until, well, the one you currently had couldn’t even turn on anymore. But this is a way of the past. Welcome to the upgrade culture.
And while there are many blessings of constant improvement and upgrades, what if we live life in a constant upgrade way? I argue it breeds deep discontentment. In this last week of Ecclesiastes we look at the blessing of accepting the lot in life to which God has assigned us. It doesn’t mean we can’t long, and yearn, and strive, but it does mean that instead of constantly focusing on what we don’t have, we live with a peaceful thankfulness for what we do.
So, we set out to be free from the tyranny of always being after new and bigger and better and bolder and different and instead seek to heed what Solomon has to say about the joy to be found in what God has entrusted to us right now.
The best mentors and coaches in my life say this often, “Remember, love people.” People are a gift from God. Relationships are a gift from God. Companionship is a gift from God.
This week we continue fleeing from seeking ultimate meaning in riches, work, and pleasure and we look back to the simple things God gives us to enjoy in this life lived in the fear of Him.
You know one of His greatest gifts to us? Other people.
Let’s talk this week of a life lived in the enjoyment of the companionship He has brought to us.
The Lord has filled our days with beautiful things to enjoy. And when we are freed from the pursuit of finding meaning for our life apart from God, we are freed to enjoy the beauty in a day that He gives us.
This week we are going to let Ecclesiastes instruct us to slow down and enjoy the beauty in each day God has given us.
This really could be a game-changer for how we take in the scenery of our life each day.
Ever read Ecclesiastes?
Next question: Ever read Ecclesiastes and been encouraged after?
This Sunday, as we regather as a church, we begin a four-week series in Ecclesiastes called "What Matters." It seems on the surface that Ecclesiastes' message is nothing matters. But Ecclesiastes is actually a gift from God to teach us what DOES matter and to not look for ultimate meaning for our lives in non-ultimate things.
Hasn't the COVID season been one of stripping away some of the things that we thought really really mattered? Hasn't it revealed how quickly some things we thought to be ultimate and untouchable were really pretty fleeting and fragile?
Let's regather this month and learn together from God's word what actually really matters.
We close out our series in 1 Peter this week with an important look at 3 crucial topics: spiritual leaders in the church, humility in all of us, and living watchful with the devil on the prowl.
I think we would all readily agree that these are three areas of life we want to hear what God has to say.
Peter has spent a lot of ink equipping these Christians for suffering and encouraging them in the midst of suffering. And this week, we get a goldmine for practical equipping for seasons of suffering.
We will focus in on 1 Peter 4:19 and together we will be equipped for any suffering we are in now or will be in one day. You won’t want to miss what God has for us from His word this week!
We are told again and again to remember that this world is not our home. It’s hard when the world shouts so many messages to make this world our home.
So what do we do?
In this week’s passage, we get some help to know how to live in this world as we pass through to the next. Tune in Sunday for 3 Characteristics of the Christian Traveler.
Let’s be equipped to live “just passing through...”
You will come under fire for your faith at some point. It’s not a matter of if, but when and how often.
- You’ll take an unpopular, biblical stand and people won’t like it.
- Some of your family may mock you for becoming a “Bible-thumping, Jesus person.”
- Some people simply won't like you because of your faith.
- You may even travel to parts of the world where you are at a higher risk solely because of being a Christian.
We will, if following Christ, come under fire for our faith.
So...are you ready for it? Do you know how to respond when your faith is under fire?
In this message, we look at four Godly responses when our faith is under fire. Don’t miss this time of equipping from God’s word.
God invented marriage. He said it was supposed to be really good. And yet not enough of His people would describe their marriage as "really good."
So let’s have Him change that. Let’s get after pursuing the marriage He has called us to. And that happens as husbands, empowered by the Holy Spirit, heed the commands God has called them to. And it happens as wives, empowered by the Holy Spirit, heed the commands God has called them to.
This week, God has a word for husbands and wives. Let’s see what He has to say.
P.S. Not a husband or wife? Thinking of tuning in elsewhere this week? There is rich stuff in this passage for every man and woman. You don’t want to miss it!
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt abnormal - like you’re the odd one out? Maybe it’s when you were in-line at a coffee shop and didn’t understand the specifics of each drink. Maybe it was when you were traveling and it seemed like everyone else understood the language and customs. Or perhaps it was when you saw many people making poor choices and you decided to stand up for what was right.
Last week, Pastor Brock showed us from 1 Peter “who we are + what we do” as believers. This week, Peter is going to take that same idea of “who we are” and apply it to living in a world that doesn’t yet believe. As believers, we’re going to be the odd ones out. When you come to Christ, you become part of His family, a citizen of heaven - and citizens of heaven have very different priorities.
So how should we live as believers in an unbelieving world? How should we interact with people, with our government, and with our employers? Find out this week as we continue our series in 1 Peter, Grace + Peace.
A good team meeting has 3 parts to it:
1) it includes and focuses on the whole team
2) it reminds us who we are
3) it reminds us what we are doing or trying to accomplish
In this message, we'll get a great team meeting. We'll look at this beautiful passage of 1 Peter which does all three of these things. The beauty and bigness and grandeur of the church is experienced when we see who WE are together and what WE are called to do together.
Everyone loves and everyone longs. We all love people and things and we all have longing for somewhere or something. The Christian, like all people, has loves and longings, but these are shaped by God.
Ultimately we love and long for Him, and this love and longing for Him makes us love and long for some other things as well.
What are these other things? Let's find out together.
So we are in this series on 1 Peter... I was ready to preach the next section of 1 Peter... But God said to preach something else.
Rarely have we interrupted a series to preach something else, but when the Spirit says, "preach this," you preach it. So we will interrupt our 1 Peter series for this message God has led us to this week.
After Peter's rich start to a rich letter, he gets into some practicals.
How should God's grace lavished on us impact and influence the life of the child of God? We'll find in this passage that someone who understands the inheritance waiting for them when Christ is revealed will have some practical handles on a life of hope and holiness.
So...looking for hope? Longing for growth in holiness? We'll look at the answer to these things this week.
Peace. It's elusive. Especially when life is hard.
We start our study in Peter's letter to a group of believers spread across areas that make up modern-day Turkey. Six verses into the letter we find out that these believers are being grieved by various trials. They are feeling the effects of living for the kingdom in a world that isn't always friendly to that. Peter writes to them, reminding them of who they are, where their citizenship ultimately resides, and most of all, he reminds them again and again how good they have it because of the grace lavished on them by God.
See, when we have a big view of God's grace, we get a big dose of His peace. When we remember all we have been given by Him, it puts our hearts at rest even through grievous trials.
Edmund Clowney calls 1 Peter "a traveler's guide for the Christian pilgrim." Let's open this guide together to see how we live with a big view of God's grace and experience a big dose of His peace in this life as we journey toward the life to come.
RESURRECTION SUNDAY IS HERE! What more needs to be said? Our resurrection hope is in a resurrected Christ.
The change in venue this Easter doesn't change the reality of our worship of a resurrected Savior! Let's get our hearts ready for great worship of a great Savior. Happy Easter!
So many thoughts, opinions, ideas, reactions to the name Jesus. So many people have thoughts on who they want Jesus to be, but Jesus is ultimately the Savior we need Him to be.
The Palm Sunday crowds on the Jerusalem streets had a certain messiah they wanted riding in on a donkey, but Jesus knew the Messiah they needed. We can learn from these Palm Sunday crowds. Who is the savior we need? Have we in any way fallen prey to making Jesus into a savior we might at times want, but not the one we need and who He claimed to be?
Let's explore this together. Gather in your living room or with your small group for Palm Sunday worship this weekend.
Every family is different. We all grew up with different traditions and different norms. Our childhoods taught us what was normal, what was expected of us, and even what to believe. We’re doing the same for our children. We’re teaching them by what we say and by what they observe in us. So what are they learning?
It is the responsibility of every generation of believers to pass their faith along to the next generation. This isn’t limited to parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This is a responsibility that each of us have as followers of Christ. It’s a call to all believers in our church. So how do we help the next generation (either by age or by maturity), become like Christ?
This week we are going to see Moses instruct the people of Israel - and we’re going to listen.
We all love a good redemption story. The book that takes us on a journey from hopelessness and pain to hope and triumph. The movie that paints such a vivid picture of evil winning only to watch a redeeming conqueror flip the script.
The best redemption stories are the ones in real life, and of the real-life redemption stories, Ruth is at the top of the charts. From devastation in chapter 1 to full redemption in chapter 4... tune in to see the story completed this Sunday.
As we walk through this together, let’s be reminded that our God takes devastation and turns it into triumph. He takes the impossible to save and shows He’s mighty to save. Let’s worship together even though we can't physically meet together and watch God fully redeem what looked unredeemable.
We are excited about the opportunity to gather together in homes to watch and worship. Gather as a family, reach out and invite small group members, have friends and neighbors over and worship together from home. This is a unique opportunity to remember that it’s not a building or a service that makes us the church, but we are a worshipping family on mission together meeting wherever to make much of Christ.
The best place to watch the sunrise at our house are the kitchen windows. One of my favorite parts of the day is to watch the very first rays of sunshine peek over the horizon and cut through the darkness. It reminds me the sun will always rise again to squelch the darkness.
Chapter 1 of Ruth was dark and hopeless, but then there was chapter 2. Chapter 2 gave us a glimpse of the light of the hesed of God in this darkness. And this week the sun will rise some more. The hesed of God in the horrors of life comes into a clearer focus. And as the focus becomes clearer we see a Redeemer.
So, if you need hope, let's gather together to see the Redeemer who shines the light of the faithful, covenant love of God in the darkest places and seasons of life.
When we last heard from Ruth and Naomi, they were leaving the land of Moab. After 10 years in the land, Ruth and Naomi were alone and without hope. Naomi’s husband died, as did her two sons (one of whom was Ruth’s husband). They leave Moab in absolute devastation.
All of us will eventually find ourselves going through periods of suffering. It’s not just a possibility, it’s promised (John 16:33, 1 Peter 4:12, among others). Knowing that such a time is coming (or for some of you, has already arrived), how do we as believers move through the devastation to the other side? How do we deal with the pain? How do we handle the heartache? How do we suffer well and honor God in the midst of it? How do we move from the horrors of life to the harvest?
The one thing we need to continue to gaze at with the greatest clarity we can possibly have is the beauty, majesty, and faithful loving-kindness of God. There is a Hebrew word all through the Old Testament on this faithful, loving-kindness of God and it is the word "hesed."
We start a 4-week series through the book of Ruth. This book is titled Ruth but it's not ultimately about Ruth. Or Boaz. Or Naomi. This is a book about the faithful loving-kindness of God - to His people in their specific circumstances and to His promise in the grand narrative of redemptive history. Ruth's hesed to Naomi and Boaz's hesed to Ruth all come in the shadow of God's hesed to His people.
And so for the next 4 weeks, let's dive into a study of the hesed of God - His loving kindness to each of us in the circumstances of life and to it's fullest understanding in His loving-kindness to us in the grand redemptive story of the coming of Jesus the Savior-King.
Reconciliation is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful word. It's beautiful when two friends reconcile. It's beautiful when two family members reconcile.
But you know what the best reconciliation is? Reconciliation to God!
When we come to faith in Christ, He reconciles us to God. We know the joy of being a new creation reconciled to our holy creator. But then God does something awesomely outlandish. He entrusts to us the ministry of reconciliation and of telling others that they too can be reconciled to God through Christ!
This week, we walk through 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 where we will understand and get excited about His ministry of reconciliation we are called to in Christ!
Over and over again in scripture, we find walking to be the picture used for the Christian life. We are told to “walk not as unwise but as wise.” We are told to “walk with the Lord.” We are told to “walk by the Spirit.”
In this message, we will look at walking with Jesus and what it looks like for us to walk with Jesus together.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read this word...
Ready...
Worship.
I bet something related to singing popped in your head. Maybe Sunday morning. Maybe a specific song. Maybe a worship band. And this is all good because one of the most important and commanded ways we express worship to God is by singing.
But worship is more than singing. God wants lives of worship. We worship when we go to church on Sunday, and believe it or not, we are worshipping something when we go to work and school and home and sporting events and the mall and on and on we could go.
So what does God call us to as worshippers? What does wholistic-life worship look like? How do we live a life of worship all week that simply overflows into a church service of worship on Sunday?
"Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
Simple yet profound.
The life of a disciple is to follow. To go where Jesus is going. To do what Jesus is doing. To hurt over what Jesus is hurting over. To rejoice in what Jesus is rejoicing in.
We must learn to follow. And as we grow to know and love Jesus and follow Him in all things, He equips us to invite more to follow Him as well. He equips us to be a master fisherman for the Kingdom.
This series is all about the Church. Our local expression of the church, the global Church, and how every single one of us has been invited into the powerful mission that Jesus gave His disciples. Every believer is a part of the Church and should seek to be an active participant in the Church.
Let's be a worshipping family on mission together.
We all desire to be in the inner ring, whether it is the cool table in grade school or the closed-door meeting at work. But what if the special communion that we share in these inner circles is just a shadow of a more profound desire for the ultimate inner ring.
One problem, humanity has no way into this inner ring because we treacherously rebelled against God. Only God himself can do it, and it is only by our union with Christ that we are welcomed back into the ultimate inner ring: God's very own family!
In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul shows us how this gracious feat was accomplished and how its application changes everything.
Preeminent: surpassing all others; very distinguished in some way.
Christ is preeminent. He has been since the beginning of creation. All things were created through Him and for Him and in Him, the fullness of God was "pleased to dwell."
But is He preeminent in your life? Is He seated on the throne of your heart? Let's take a deep look into the preeminence of Christ, and how that should bring us to all-out worship of our Supreme Savior.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"
The multitude of the heavenly hosts proclaimed this line over the shepherd in the field on the night of Christ's birth. This one sentence is full of riches that could be unpacked into eternity, but Sunday we take this one verse and let it orient our heads and our hearts heading into the Christmas week.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "Show me your friends, I'll show you your future?" Basically meaning that who you spend time with you will become. However, in life, sometimes this statement doesn't always prove to be true. For instance, I can remember hanging around some really talented basketball players in my neighborhood growing up thinking that if I spent enough time with them maybe, just maybe I will be able to become like them. Yeah, well let's just say that a pair of Air Jordan's, countless hours of "chilling with talented people", and a whole lot of high hopes sometimes only results in fantastic comic relief.
However, we will discover in this week's passage that Paul essentially says the same thing in regards to our spiritual lives, the difference being that it always proves to be true. - You will become what you behold. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
John has written an entire letter for believers to rest assured in their faith. This week, we bring the letter to a close, and as we do we should be asking: So what should I be walking away with from this study of 1 John?
John answers this in his closing verses with five restful assurances for the one who has believed in Jesus. Let's finish this book strong together.
The most important decision of your life is whether you will believe Jesus is the Son of God who can save you from your sin. There it is, as direct as I can write it. This week's passage states this fact as simply, loving, and pointedly as God can state it.
So the question is: Have you believed Jesus is the Son of God and experienced life in Christ?
Breakthrough(noun):a sudden and important development or an instance of achieving success in a particular activity.
I'm sure you've noticed that one of the recurring themes in the book of 1 John is love. Truthfully, it’s nearly impossible to study a chapter in 1 John without hearing about the love of God and a love for others.
We’ve seen this beautiful picture of love presented throughout this series - a deep, selfless, unshakeable love that God commands and exemplifies. But how do we get to the place where we love like that?
One of the key themes of 1 John is that true believers love one another. John has continued to make this point throughout the letter. And last week, as we studied verses 4:7-12, we saw the simple command to love one another in light of the audaciously gracious love of God.
And while we can say “Amen” to that with our mouths and understand it in our heads, the reality is that many of us can struggle with this in one of two ways. The first struggle is that we can doubt that God can truly love us like that. And the second struggle is that we can despair that we are failing at loving others as God loves us.
But John does not want us to despair or to question God’s love for us. He desperately wants to assure us of God’s love for us and His abiding in us which is evidenced by a confidence before God and a love for others.
We know we are called as followers of Jesus to love one another, and we know that can be hard at times. This week, John tells us the source of the power of loving one another. And his explanation might surprise us.
We learn this pretty early on in life: "Don't believe everything you hear!" We grow up learning to use discernment to separate truth from lies, right from wrong, real from fake.
This same simple saying needs to be applied to who we listen to and who we don't listen to on spiritual matters. This week's passage teaches us how to discern spiritual truths from spiritual errors. This week is an investment in our spiritual health to ensure we are getting our information about Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus from reliable sources.
The battle to rest assured is won and lost in our hearts. We all know the loud megaphone a condemning heart can have, and how our internal wrestlings can mess with the assurance of our faith.
In this message, we look at a beautiful passage that helps a follower of Jesus quiet a condemning heart. Let's take the megaphone away from that loud internal voice of condemnation and enjoy the restful assurance of those who are in Christ.
Marked: clearly noticeable. Evident.
As the family of God, we are to be marked by certain things. We’ve seen consistently throughout the book of 1st John that we are to be marked by faith in the true Jesus. We’ve looked recently at the reality that we are to be marked by a pattern of righteousness and not one of continual sin. Now our attention shifts to love.
Christians are to be marked by love. Jesus tells us that the world will know that we are part of the family of God by our love for each other.
"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning..."
Whoa. I read that soberly. I know of my sin struggles and where I see sin rear its ugly head in my life. I know I know Christ, but I also know I "keep sinning."
But what does John mean here? What does he want us to understand about the person who persists in sin, makes a practice of it, keeps on sinning? What will John boldly tell us is true of this person's eternal reality? And how is this different from the sin struggles of the true Christian?
Do you know...like really know...like deep down in the fabric of your being know...how much Jesus loves you!
This week we will see what Jesus has done that allows us to know how much he loves us. This week we will see what he is doing that shows how much he loves us. This week we will see what he will do that shows us how much he loves us.
Need a fresh drink from the well of the Father's love for you?
Read the headlines. Watch the news. Follow global events. Just look around. Everything seems heavy, sad, broken, and not getting any better.
We are living in the last hour. But what does that mean? What does “last hour living” look like for the believer? How do we navigate so many against Christ in these days in a way that, well, models the peace and rest of Christ.
In this message, we'll talk about four restful reminders for last hour living.
1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world." And from there it goes on to identify a very dire reality for anyone who does love the world.
But I'm confused... doesn't the most well-known verse of all time tell us that "God so loved the world?" So should we love the world or not love the world?
What is John saying here? What does it mean to not love the world in the way John means it? How do I even know if I do love the world in this way? And what's at stake if I am a lover of the world?
When we were young, it was much easier to know that we know things. The confidence that comes from simple knowledge is undeniable. As a child, you didn’t say, “I think my daddy is a doctor.” You were confident, “My daddy is a doctor.” But as we age, it’s much harder to have that same confidence. We move from “I know I know.” to “I think I know.” to simply, “I think.” This happens as our world gets more complex and the explanations get harder to understand. And, unfortunately, this also happens with our faith.
I know that I know God. I think that I know God. I think about God.
This week as we continue our study in 1 John, we’re going to look at the marks of a true believer. What should be true of all of us, if we are truly in Jesus Christ? And most importantly, we’ll answer the question: How can you know that you know God?
1 John 2:2 made me look like a fool on a beach one time. Seriously. The revelation God gave as to what it meant for Christ to be the propitiation for my sin had me on my feet, jumping around, celebrating the MASSIVE implications it had for my life and for all who call on Christ to be saved.
So...what does it mean that Christ is the propitiation for our sins? Why does it matter? And how might the revelation of this sink into your heart in such a way that you too will look like a "worshipping fool" in your joyful response to it?
We often run from the idea of confessing our sin. The lies build up in our head as to why concealing it is better than confessing it. We might offer up to God in generalities some broad sin struggle, but fight the notion of naming the specifics of our sin, and we really shudder at the thought of telling others about it.
This week we look at God's goodness and grace to us in giving us the means of confessing our sin. We're going to debunk a lie that tells us we don't need to confess. We're going to define what healthy confession looks like. We're going to destroy the hurdles that keep us from confessing. And we are going to determine to trust the character of God and promises of God for those who confess sin.
God is light. We are told this in the word. This means that God's people are to walk in the light and their relationship with the Lord should be seen in their life. There is a scary possibility brought up in what we will study this week in that it's possible for people to say they have fellowship with God, to possibly even think they have fellowship with God, and yet still be walking in darkness.
So... what does it mean that God is light? What does it look like to walk in the light? How do we know if we are still walking in darkness? And the most important question for us to answer: How do we cross over from darkness to light?
John wastes no time as he opens this letter. Page open. Pen in hand. Let’s talk about Jesus!
He will tell us that it’s this Jesus and our right understanding of Jesus that will lead to fellowship with God and with each other. And this fellowship leads to our joy!
Assurance brings peace.
Assurance brings joy.
Assurance brings rest.
We are about to embark on a journey through a letter in our Bible with this stated purpose: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”
This letter seeks to provide corporate assurance to a group of believers and personal assurance to individual believers of what it looks like to be in Christ.
Let’s go on the journey together and experience all of the blessings of knowing this rest-giving assurance of our standing in Christ.
Martha did what most of us would do if we were hosting Jesus...
Martha said what most of us would say if no one was helping us...
Martha asked Jesus what most of us would have asked Jesus, "Lord, don't you care that she isn't helping me??"
And yet Jesus tells us Mary had chosen the good portion, and there is a lesson we cannot miss. It's possible for us to get so busy, so distracted, so anxious and troubled trying to do all these things for Jesus that we forget He has really invited us to first come and sit in His presence.
Let's look together at how we avoid the tyranny of "distracted doing" and instead choose the good portion of being in the presence of Jesus.
What comes to mind when you think of the word lament? We typically use the word in expressing sorrow or regret. For example, “I’m lamenting that I didn’t join them for the weekend retreat,” or “I lament the loss of our friendship.” However, lament is a specific language that God has given us to bring our sorrows before Him. In fact, the Bible is full of examples of lament. A full 1/3 of the Psalms are considered Psalms of lament.
The reality is that life is hard, and we will face trouble and sorrow on this earth, and yet we look forward to a time when we will dwell with God, where there will be no more tears and no more suffering. But until then, lament is a language given to us by God to navigate the reality of the present with the promise of the future.
In this message, we study one of the darkest and saddest Psalms of lament in the Bible. And yet, we will find in this Psalm some surprising truths that will lead us to trust and hope in the sovereign God of our eternal salvation, even in the midst of sorrow and suffering.
Growing up I was blessed with a wonderful father. He was a very nice man, loved Jesus (When he got saved around my teen years), and loved his family. While being the great man that he was, he also was a man that you did not want to mess with. He is the only human I know who had a healthy balance of being loveable, yet intimidating. My father holds a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do, Brown belt in judo, spent years teaching firearm classes, can break bricks with his bare hands, and he's BALD! (Because being bald adds an element of toughness that just isn’t fair). He reminds me of Denzel Washington in “Equalizer”, a mysterious man who leads a normal life.
With all of this being said, my father made me feel safe. No matter if a grown man was harassing our family or a hurricane was coming with the capabilities to potentially blow over our house, I knew everything was going to be okay because he was there to bring protection. There is no way I would replace him with any other dad in the world. He was a refuge for my family and I growing up.
Likewise, God is our refuge. He is a place that we can run to and find protection and peace, no matter the circumstance. We wouldn’t want to trade that relationship for anything in the world, no matter how strong the pull of temptation is to do so. In this message, we will look at three benefits of having God as our refuge.
- Pastor Cory
In this life, we will always come across opposition or obstacles. And most of the time we anticipate this. But what do you do when you find that your opposition or obstacle isn’t going away? Or the breakthrough you have been asking the LORD for doesn’t seem to come?
The scary reality is that when these times come, we sometimes can sense our trust in Jesus beginning to waver. And it must be noted that this is when Satan often moves in closer to whisper lies to us like, "God isn't there with you," "God doesn't care about you," or "God is holding out on you."
Can you relate? We will open up God's Word together and look through the portals of time and see what previous generations of God's children did to experience unshakable trust in the LORD in the midst of unstable times in their lives.
Proverbs warns us that the fear of man is a snare in our life, and yet I think all of us have struggled at times with fearing man more than God or seeking man's approval above God's.
Some of us may even be controlled by the fear of man. Maybe for you, it's as if someone has strings connected to your back, puppeteering your every move through life as you live too afraid to say no or stand up for what you ultimately know God would want.
How do we have victory over the fear of man? How do we walk in the freedom of a God-fearing life, not controlled by the trap that is the fear of man?
When we think about blessings and the Lord we often think about how the Lord blesses us. What does it mean for us to bless the Lord? In the first line of Psalm 34, David writes, "I will bless the Lord at all times..."
What does it mean to bless the Lord? And why is the Lord worthy of our lives being lived as an offering of blessing back to Him?
We are all scared of something. Come on, admit it. The toughest person who walks into church on Sunday is scared of something. Fear can manifest in our life as a subtle undercurrent of worry and anxiety or it can manifest as an ever-present crippling paralysis.
In this message, we look at one fear crushing reminder and 5 outcomes for our life when our heart is clinging to this reminder!
So...let's walk away from this like Kevin from Home Alone walked down his front sidewalk shouting, "I'm not afraid anymore! Did you hear me? I'm not afraid anymore!"
We are so excited about the work God is already doing and will continue to do through CB and Beacon in Downtown Denver. Denver is literally a "city on a hill," and we are praying that the Lord shines His light brightly in that place.
CB Barthlow is the Planting Pastor of Beacon in Denver, CO. https://www.denverbeacon.org/
What is the natural result of disciples making disciples? What happens when disciples of Jesus are committed to reproducing other disciples? Reproducing disciples will result in reproducing churches! When disciples multiply, churches multiply.
As we come to the end of our Vitals series, we begin to shift our attention not just on the health of the individual Jesus follower but the health of the gathering of Jesus followers- The Church. Part of being a healthy Jesus follower is participating in a local expression of the body of Christ. And part of what makes a healthy church is a multiplying church.
At the end of the book of Matthew, we find what every Christian knows to be called “The Great Commission”. It’s this commission from Jesus that is life-shaping! When we see what Christ has invited us into—disciples made all over the globe—it changes the way we do everything.
The vital sign of vital signs for disciples of Jesus is our joyful faithfulness to make more disciples of Jesus!
We talk about what we love. We share what has thrilled our heart. We pass on to others things that have changed our life.
If we have a red-hot walk with Christ we have to tell others about it. In this message we look at the vital sign of gospel witness. Someone walking intimately with the Savior can't NOT tell other people about Him.
Let's stoke the fire for Jesus, our love for the lost, and our urgency to share the good news of what He has done.
We love to watch when multiple people work together to accomplish something great. We watch teams, orchestras, choirs, and plays where every individual is doing their part, using their gifts, and fulfilling their role to be a piece of something much bigger than themselves.
The church is the most beautiful picture on the face of the earth in this regard. Each person in the church has gifts and roles given to them that must be used for the good of the whole. And what makes this more amazing than a sport or choir or orchestra or play? Each of our roles is given to us directly by the Spirit of God AND it means we get a role in building up the church which is taking the gospel to the ends of the earth to the glory of God. What could be more exciting to be a part of?
A healthy walk in Christ is one in which we are using the gifts given to us by God. This week, we look at the vital sign of spiritual gifts and ask: Do I know my gifts? Am I using my gifts? Have I experienced the joy and fulfillment of playing my part so that the church as a whole can thrive?
The moment we are in Christ we are a new creation. We have a new identity, a new heart, and a brand new nature. And yet, scripture tells us that we also grow in our new life. The longer we follow Jesus, the more we are to be growing into looking more and more like Him.
So some questions: Are you growing in Christ? What does this growth look like? And maybe most importantly, how do you grow spiritually?
In this message we look at the broad, but crucial, vital sign of spiritual growth and seek to gain a better understanding of how spiritual growth happens in Christ.
The beginning of a Doctor's visit usually looks the same.
Thermometer...
Blood pressure cuff...
Stethoscope...
A doctor starts nearly every appointment the same way. They check your vitals. They can tell a lot about our basic health by quickly checking just a few things on us physically.
This is the beginning of a series where we'll ask, "What are the vital signs of a healthy walk with Jesus?" For 6 weeks we will discover some vital signs scripture would identify as indicators of health in our walk with Christ.
"For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." 1 Corinthians 15:16-17
Our faith rests on a resurrected Jesus. If there was no resurrection, there is no Christianity. But Easter Sunday is the celebration of celebrations. We gaze on the glory of the resurrected Christ. We will recount the story of the resurrection, a story that never gets old, and then we will look at how the story of the resurrection has the power to change our life.
Heart Check... This phrase can bring both positive and negative thoughts to our mind. Heart checks may not be the most fun in the moment but we know that in the long run, they're good for us. They help us see the state of things as they actually are and not as we necessarily thought they were.
Our passage this week is going to be a great heart check for us. We're going to walk through Jesus' High Priestly prayer in John 17. This is one of the greatest prayers in all of Scripture. It's one of the only times we actually see the content of what Jesus prays. And as we walk through this text together, God is going to give us some heart checks to evaluate our lives.
When was the last time you were impressed by something or someone? Impression is a funny thing, isn't it? The actual meaning comes from the action of pressing something in. So when we say, "I am impressed by so and so's ability to play basketball." what we are actually saying is, "I can't get this person's talent out of my mind." They made an impression on your mind.
Well in this passage, we will be joining Jesus and His disciples around the dinner table for their very last meal together. And it was around this dinner table that Jesus desired deeply to impress on their hearts a lesson that would change the way they would live the rest of their lives.
What comes to mind when you think of a king? The grandiose living. The servant's waiting on him at every turn. The beautiful palace with no expenses spared.
Whatever you think of when you think of a king...Jesus was the opposite. We follow a King, but He was servant King. He was a suffering King. And He was establishing a kingdom, unlike any other kingdom.
We are beginning a series leading up to Easter looking at the Glory of the Suffering Christ. This week, we worship as we study our Suffering King. What kind of impact does understanding Jesus as Suffering King have on the way we go about living the life of following Him?
Throughout scripture, two themes recur often. These two themes are the "Fear of the Lord" and the "Day of the Lord." In many regards, these two themes are very connected.
We will see their connection powerfully in the passage this week. What does it mean for us to live with a healthy fear of the Lord? What do we need to know about the Day of the Lord? And how does knowledge of the Day of the Lord lead to a greater fear of the Lord?
These are life-shaping, eternity defining truths for us to study.
It is kind of weird to think about, but we can actually rob God. To commit robbery is to take for ourselves what rightfully belongs to someone else. In this week's passage, the Lord lovingly confronts His people for not giving their tithes and offerings to Him. He calls this robbery.
Now none of us want to be guilty of divine robbery, so we need to understand how this passage applies to us today. What does it look like to give to the Lord in a God-honoring way? Are we required to "tithe" of our income? What does our giving tell us about our worship?
This message isn't ultimately about giving. This message is ultimately about worship. When our worship is right, our giving gets right.
"God, where is your justice?" This is the question the people were asking. God's people were looking at worshippers of false gods and watching them seemingly flourish. What was up with that? Was the perceived flourishing of those other people God’s hand of approval on them? Where is the justice in that?
There are times where life doesn't seem to be going our way. In these times we often look around and see people who have no desire to honor God seemingly flourish. What do we need to understand about the justice of God? How can we be awakened to know that always, in the end, God's perfect, patient, loving justice will prevail?
Throughout the centuries, the high view and calling God has placed on marriage has come under attack. We can see this in our own day, marriage is often not held in the high esteem in which God has created it to be. Even thousands of years ago, amongst God's people, the covenant of marriage found itself under attack.
In seven verses of Malachi, we will watch God's passionate defense of marriage amongst His people. He will call them out and call them back to His intentions for this relationship. This has the potential to change the trajectory of our marriages and recenter the relationship between husband and wife back on God's glory.
Whether you are or aren't married, this passage will unleash worship in your heart over what God is seeking to accomplish through this awesome institution He created called marriage.
What does it look like to honor someone? That actually can be kind of a tough question to answer. What does honor look like? It can be hard to quantify, but we know it when we see it.
This week's passage helps us understand what it looks like when a life honors God and what it looks like when a life doesn't honor God. And there are grave dangers at stake based on whether our lives are or aren't honoring the Lord.
The Lord in His grace has a great wake up call for us this week. We want God's maximum and supreme honor with our lives, so let's find out very clearly how He is honored through our lives.
Can you encounter God’s presence and witness God’s hand at work in marvelous ways in your life, every day? According to Malachi, this is precisely what God longs to do every day in every season of your life. There is only one thing standing in the way; authentic worship.
God wants the real thing. He wants the unadulterated, unashamed, unrelenting worship of our hearts. He will accept nothing less than our best. But how do we know if we are truly worshiping with authenticity? How do we protect our hearts from sliding down into apathy? God reveals to us the true meaning of authentic worship in Malachi 1:6-14.
Ever needed a wake up call? Not a phone ringing in a hotel room to wake you up, but a wake up call in your life. Maybe you had been disengaged and going through the motions and God brought something about to wake you up. Maybe you had drifted into a dry desert in your faith and the Lord in His grace opened your eyes again to His great love for you.
Our study in Malachi will lay out 6 wake up calls to revive our faith. If you find yourself having lost the fire of your faith. If you find yourself in a dry season. If you find yourself going through the external motions of the Christian life with an internal heart posture that seems disconnected... this is a series that will revive your walk.
Let our faith be revived this week as we remember the unconditional love of God.
We were made to live forever. In the beginning, God created man and woman and the intention was total harmony, communion, and fellowship forever. Sin marred that. But God made a way again.
So far we have looked at God. We have studied His love for the world. Now, this week we are told how His love for us has made a way for us to have eternal life. What is eternal life? How do we get eternal life?
No more important question to answer in our life than this one.
There is such a powerful and pointed statement in John 3:16 that assures us we never have to worry about whether God loves us or not. The Lord has acted in such a way to demonstrate and display His love for the world! It's unequivocally unarguable!!
He loves us!
Before we can understand God's love for the world, His giving of His own Son, His making a way for humanity to not perish... Before we can get to the gold of all of those truths unpacked in John 3:16, we have to start at the very beginning:
"For God..."
Who is this God? God cannot be limited to an understanding that can adequately be unpacked in a 40-minute sermon. We know that. But He also desires to be known. He has revealed to us who He is through His Word. He wants us to know Him, and He desires us to be known by Him.
Our greatest need isn't a self-help book that will teach us how to "get our life together". Our greatest need isn't a makeover. Our greatest need isn't a motivational speech that will spark our willpower for a time only for it to flame out again.
Our greatest need is to be born again!
What does it mean to be born again? What happens to us when we are born again? How are we born again? What awaits the one who is born again?
We'll unpack all of this. Now, if you think this is a sermon just for non-Christians... no way. These truths may be the most awe-inducing, worship-inspiring, current-Christian-sustaining truths we can tackle.
Have you ever met someone that appears to be “love-struck?" Do you know what I mean? You find this person “singing in the rain” or gazing at the moon "like a big pizza pie." We all have to admit that we tend to act a little crazy when we are in love, don’t we?
In this week’s passage, Paul points out that it is not uncommon for people to think we have lost our minds when we are truly abiding in and reflecting on Jesus’ love for us. His love has the power to totally eclipse our lives and overcome our hearts in radical ways.
The question Paul raises for us is, "Do we truly realize how much Jesus loves us?"
This is that time where countless New Year's resolutions are made... And a few weeks from now is the time when many of these resolutions are broken.
As a year comes to an end, we naturally begin to think about what we want to do with the next one, but with every broken resolution, we are reminded that we don't possess the power to carry out many of the goals we make for ourselves. What if we spend so much time making good spiritual goals for 2019 but don't understand what needs to be true in our life in order to actually carry these out?
Let's take the last message of the year and focus not on all the specific things we want to do, but on understanding what needs to be true in our life in order to do what God wants us to do.
We'll talk about five powerful outcomes that will be true for our life if we will abide in Christ. This, more than anything else, may prepare us for 2019 to be one of the most fruitful year's for the Lord yet.
Often as we celebrate Christmas we focus exclusively on the manger scene and the birth of Christ. Obviously, isn't this what Christmas is about?
Yes, it is. But one thing we can't miss is who Jesus has always been before He was born as a baby in a feeding trough. Taking some time this Christmas to understand the theology of Jesus will lead us to greater worship as we fix our eyes on the birth of the King in a manger.
So let's celebrate Christmas as we look first at the pre-existent Jesus and then stand in awe of the implications of Him coming to earth!
The greatest way to see and experience the power of prayer is to... Ready for it...
Drumroll
To Pray!
In this message, we ask the question, "What if we prayed?" What might God do through a group of humble, dependent followers of His who really believe firmly in the power of prayer?
Some of the greatest breakthroughs, inventions, and history-shaping events have come about because someone was willing to ask, "What if..." In the next two weeks, we are going to focus in on the common themes of Acts we need to take with us as we close out this series. We are going to do this by asking, "What if..." on two specific themes we see undergirding all of Acts. What if asking "what if" on these two topics can unleash the power in our lives and in our church that we read about in Acts? What two themes from Acts will we ask "what if" about? And what if this will drive some things deep into our heart that will stay with us long after this series is done? In this message, we ask the question, "What if we witness?"
Ridicule. Beatings. Assassination attempts. Arrests. Shipwrecks. Stranded on an island. And now...bit by a snake.
Yes, bit by a snake.
It is hard to fathom everything Paul endured for the spread of the gospel, but maybe the most surprising of all is that he continued to press on. This week we find him stranded on an island and under guard in Rome. As we turn to the last chapter of the Book of Acts, we will learn what we are called to in seasons of life we feel stuck or stranded.
Jesus taught us that "in this world, we will have trouble." Difficult circumstances will inevitably invade our lives. But Jesus also taught us in this same sentence to "take heart, because He has overcome the world." (John 16:33) This is such good news, but to be transparent, it is often very difficult to believe at times.
Have you ever been in a situation that honestly just seemed absolutely hopeless? Have you ever convinced yourself that there is no way that your life will ever be the same? If anything, your future looks very bleak as a result of your current circumstance? Perhaps some of us are there right now. Here is a question this passage forces us to wrestle with:
Is your fear of your circumstance greater than your faith in God?
Think about that...If anxiety seems to have a permanent seat at your table, then you're not going to want to miss this message. God wants to realign your perspective on just how powerful He really is.
Follow Christ long enough and you will stumble into situations and circumstances in which you feel like your faith is on trial. Maybe it's an intellectual or academic setting where you feel all eyes are on you to defend why you believe Jesus is the Son of God. Maybe it's a conversation that turns to morals and ethics and you can feel the group wanting to know why you hold to such "antiquated ideas." Follow Jesus long enough and you will find your faith on trial.
The next five chapters of the book of Acts are five defense speeches Paul gives with his faith on trial. We are going to zoom out and look at parts of all five of Paul's defense speeches and as we do, we are going to find Five Powerful Principles We Must Boldly Hold To When Our Faith is On Trial.
This message will equip us for those conversations that feel like we have been put on the spot and we must have an answer for the hope we have in Christ.
Not all counsel is good counsel. Sometimes even those who love us most don't give us the best advice. We should always seek counsel from fellow believers and wise people in our life, but we need to develop the ability to test and filter the responses we receive.
In this week's passage, we watch as Paul continues his focused journey to Jerusalem, even after fellow Christians beg him not to go. Why doesn't he listen to their counsel on this? Why does he press on to Jerusalem when brothers and sisters in two different cities plead with him not to?
Was this stubborn persistence on Paul's part in resisting his friend's advice, or was this firm resolve knowing what God had called him to? This passage will lead us to an important discussion on testing and discerning when the counsel we get is the right counsel from God!
Let's get right to the point: Do you want to waste your life or not?
None of us want to waste our life, and fortunately for us, this passage in Acts tells us how to not waste it.
Enough said...
A disruption is defined as a disturbance that interrupts an event, activity, or process.
So the question is: Should a Christian ever be known as a disruptive person? Someone who creates a disturbance that interrupts?
In every city that Paul proclaims the gospel, a disruption happens. This week we look at one of the most volatile examples of this as a riot starts in Ephesus. As we study this, we will be encouraged to live a life of peaceful disruption for the glory of God. We will acknowledge that the nature of walking with Christ is to walk against the current of culture, and anytime we do this, disruption is inevitable.
We don't have to fear being a peacefully disruptive people in society. In fact, some of the greatest Kingdom influencers in the history of Christianity have been powerfully, yet peacefully disruptive forces in the hands of God.
Many of us have learned during our lives that there can be power in a name. There are few things more awkward than calling someone by the wrong name, but few things more beneficial than knowing the right names at the right times in the right circumstances.
As Christians, we know that there is one name that is above all names: Jesus. In fact, at Harvest, we often sing about the power of the name of Jesus. But what are some of the specific ways that this power is manifest in our lives?
In this message, we open God’s Word to Acts 19 and find Paul returning to the city of Ephesus as he begins his third missionary journey. And as Paul begins an extended time of ministry in Ephesus, we will see specifically how the name of Jesus has an extraordinary impact on individual lives as well as the entire region. One of the events, in particular, is definitely not something you will read about in the “Precious Moments Bible.”
If you asked someone who was familiar with the Bible to list the key players of the book of Acts, the list might go something like this, "Paul...Peter...Barnabas...Timothy...Silas..." And they would be absolutely right in listing these names.
But this week we stumble across two people who would probably never make the "Who's Who List" of the book of Acts and yet have a profound impact on the early church. These two people are a husband and wife who we are introduced to for the first time in Acts 18, and then show up quietly throughout the rest of the New Testament.
In this sermon, we are going to learn what it looks like to have a quietly mighty Kingdom impact from this couple. And as we look at this, I believe we are going to be surprised by the 2 simple mottos that made this couple so effective in the hands of God... mottos every single one of us can live by as well.
Who is this couple? What did they do that made them so useful to the Lord? What can we learn from their lives so we can have a quiet yet powerful Kingdom impact as well?
In Part 1, we left this story in the heaviness and tension of the reality that we are prone to worship idols and idols will destroy our soul.
In Part 2, we leave the valley and head to the mountaintop. We gaze on the goodness of glory of the One True God. We see how our understanding and worship of God roots out and destroys the idols of our heart.
I remember my first trip to New York City. I had never experienced anything like it. The atmosphere--its sights, sounds, the energy, the smells--all of it is such a vivid memory for me. Each block we turned had its own culture. Each block we turned had new sights to behold. Each block we turned also revealed powerful pictures of the idols of our culture.
This was Paul's experience as he stepped foot in Athens. Athens was the intellectual and cultural mecca of the empire, but what Paul saw grieved him. As he took in the wrongful worship of idols, it led to him boldly telling the Athenians of the One they were really seeking to worship.
This week we talk about idols. What are they? How do they form? What is at stake if we worship them? And how are our idols destroyed and swallowed up by the greater glory of the One our hearts truly long to worship?
Sharing the gospel will elicit different responses from different people.
There is the "This is Awkward, Change the Subject Guy" who will just quickly look to talk about anything except spiritual things.
There is the "I Just Want to Pick a Fight Guy" who, by just your mentioning of Jesus, will want to get into an intellectual wrestling match of name calling.
But then there are the refreshing reactions of "I Just Want to Know the Truth" people. These people listen to understand. They ask questions to clarify. You see the wheels turning in their brain and the Spirit pulling on their heart.
In this passage, we come across "I Just Want to Know the Truth" people as we make our way with Paul and Silas to a new city. Through our study of these people, we are going to learn three things truth seekers do when confronted with the message of Christ.
Got any people in your life who are wrestling with whether to follow Christ? Anyone who is doubting their faith? Want to know how to witness to those people who seem to keep asking hard questions that you don't always know how to answer? Let's wrestle through these things together.
"But why? Why mom? Why dad? Why? Why? Why?"
Have you ever experienced this question asked over and over and over again? While this can start as endearing, it can eventually become tiring. However, with God’s Word, we should constantly be asking the question “why”. It can lead us to know more about our awesome God. It can help us understand more about how He has created us and the world around us.
This Sunday, we’re going to study an amazing story together in the book of Acts and ask a big "why" question. We’re going to wrestle with why we suffer for following Jesus, and how that suffering should actually cause us to rejoice!
Have you ever been traveling on the road and suddenly find yourself staring at a construction sign that reads “Road Closed Ahead”?
This seems to happen a lot for those of us living in Greenwood, IN. It’s in moments like this, that we can truly learn a lot about ourselves. Do you ignore the sign and keep on driving hoping to not get caught? Do you turn around and head back in the direction you came from and lose precious time? Or does your creative ingenuity kick in and you try to figure out the quickest route around the construction? Either way, we can learn much about our hearts when something or someone frustrates our plans.
In this week’s passage, we get the opportunity to see how Paul reacts when God is the One frustrating his plans. From this experience, we are able to discover how to live a missional life when God’s plans don’t seem to make sense.
We often, rightly, talk about agreeing in the Lord. It is important that we stay lock-step, unified on the mission Christ has left us with and the core doctrines God has left us with in His Word.
But what about disagreement in the Lord? Is there room for us to disagree on some things and remain a unified family? We believe the answer to that question is yes!
This week we are going to see where we can disagree on methods, but (here's the important part) remain in missional and relational unity. This week's passage leads us to the most famous ministry partnership breakup in history, but let's be careful we don't quickly assume this to be a completely sad or bad thing.
What do we mean by that? Let's find out.
This week we study a church meeting. Sounds riveting right? Except this is probably the most important meeting in the history of the church.
There were two types of Christians in the early church, those Christians that came from a Jewish background and those that came from a Gentile background. These were groups of people from very different walks of life. As more and more Gentiles became Christians, a big topic of conversation was how they fit into the family of God. Could they become Christians without becoming Jews? Could they truly be saved without taking part in circumcision and adhering to the Law?
These types of questions led to a really important meeting called the Jerusalem Council, in which the church walks out with a clear plan, a unified body, and no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
What were the convictions and commitments that were made between Jew and Gentile? And how can we continue these convictions and commitments to forever stay unified as a church?
Did you know that the Bible talks about suffering, hardship, persecution, trials, and tribulations as normal for the Christian life? And it talks about these things a lot.
As you read what scripture has to say about tribulation as normal for those who follow Christ, it seems so different from the many titles you see as you stroll the "Christian Living" section of the bookstore.
This week, we come across this statement, "...through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." This week we seek to unpack this idea. Why do we enter the Kingdom through many tribulations? Why is this worth it? Why should I expect this as more of the norm in my life of following hard after Christ?
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
T'was blind but now I see"
Grace is amazing...but sometimes as we begin to walk with Christ for awhile, we can lose the awe and forget how amazing grace really is. As Paul makes his way to Pisidian, Antioch this week, he is going to preach a message laced in grace.
And this message is a message we need. The Spirit of God is going to renew the awe and amaze us again with the greatness of the grace of God.
Last we heard about Saul and Barnabas, they were down in Jerusalem serving the church. This week, we’re going to see them back with the church in Antioch worshipping, praying, and fasting. We see in this church an insatiable desire to be with God. To pursue Him. They're hungry for the presence and power of God in their lives and in their church.
And this hunger to be with God sets off a series of events that will change not just an island and the people on it, but literally the course of human history.
We were made for glory. We were made to give glory. Our lives exist for the purpose of God getting more glory. Sometimes, though, we want glory for ourselves, but God tells us He will share His glory with no one.
This week's passage reveals to us an attempted glory robbery. Herod wants glory due only to God, and God deals with Herod in a startling way.
In this message we will learn more of God's glory and receive a powerful reminder of the dangers of attempting to rob God of glory that is due only to Him.
In every great movie, there is always an unexpected plot twist. In fact, would you agree, that the more inconspicuous the twist is, the better the movie? Isn't it interesting that we think completely different when it comes to real life? Most of us would rather things be smooth, calm, and even slightly predictable. Perhaps we might prefer an occasional lapse of judgment just for fun, but nothing too "out of control".
But what do you do when everything goes awry? When your plans go up in smoke and you find yourself in a genuine crisis? An unexpected trial that renders you completely confused?
That’s what we find happening in this passage in Acts. But, what God does in the middle of a crisis is sure to leave you amazed, breathless, and filled with faith.
This past Fall Amazon announced it would be building a second headquarters somewhere in North America. They outlined the criteria they would use in making this decision. With the release of this criteria, cities were immediately unleashed into a fierce competition to land this HQ2 of one of the world's most influential companies.
In Acts 11, we will see God establish an HQ2 of His own. This HQ2 that is established will be the sending base hub of the missional advance of the gospel to the Gentile world. What can get lost in this, though, is God's simple plan for the building blocks of this HQ2 missionary hub: People.
But what kind of people?
As we seek to be a sending base church, we will see this week "How God Builds a Sending Base". As we study this, we will know the key building blocks God uses to build a church that will be greatly used to build The Church.
One thing that cannot be denied is that the early church lived with a consuming passion to see the message of the gospel of Christ spread across the world. This mission defined everything about how they lived. The moment a heart had embraced the gospel for themselves, they were launched on a missional life of taking the gospel to others.
This week we will see that no matter what sacrifice God may call us, taking the gospel message to the lost will always be worth it.
What would it look like for us to re-arrange the priorities of life around living as a missionary in our everyday life? How do we grow in an all-consuming desire to see the gospel go to everyone, everywhere?
We believe that Acts 10 will be an instrument in God's hands to ignite a passion to live a missional life for the spread of the gospel and the glory of God.
"I know God has done miracles. I read about them in my Bible. But do I really believe God still can? Yeah, I guess I do, but do I really believe He will?"
We can often have a right doctrine of the omnipotence of God (God is all powerful and able to do anything), but does our doctrine translate to street-theology? Meaning, do we really believe practically, in how we live our life, that God can still do anything?
This week we study two miracle stories. These two miracle stories come back to back in the book of Acts and share the same story structure. It seems in their shared structure, God wants to teach us something about the fact that He was, is, and always will be a God of miraculous power. It also seems these stories can shed some light on God's purposes in why He does the supernatural miracles He does.
Jesus makes dead people come to life. To know Christ is to have a complete resurrection and transformation from dead in sin to a made new in Him... But now what?
This is what we’re going to see in the story of Saul. In part 2 of Saul’s radical conversion, we’ll witness the effects of this transformation overflowing out of his life.
Jesus doesn't just make bad people good, dirty people clean, or average people better; Jesus makes dead people come to life. To know Christ is to have a complete resurrection and transformation from an old life dead in sin to a brand new life in Him.
This is seen powerfully in the story of a radical conversion we see in this passage in Acts.
There is a family that teaches their kids what it means to obey by saying this, "Obedience means right away, all the way, with a happy heart."
But this isn't just a statement for kids, this is a statement for every Christ follower.
When God says "go", do we obey right away, all the way, with a happy heart? When God says "do", do we obey right away, all the way, with a happy heart?
This week we see a picture of immediate obedience, and in studying this passage, we will be better equipped to obey God--right away, all the way, with a happy heart--in everything He calls us to obey Him in!
"Why?" is an important question. "Why?" is a heart searching question. We do a lot of things in life, we make a lot of decisions in life, but there is something that stops us and makes us think when we ask the question "Why?"
We know we should follow Jesus, but have you ever asked why you are following Jesus? "Why?" gets at the motives for your following of Christ. What if our motives in following Jesus may not be as pure as we may have thought?
Confused yet?
In this sermon, we are introduced to a man who 'believed' in Jesus but whose heart in following Jesus was exposed. This man displayed a heart more interested in the perks of Jesus than the person of Jesus.
We will let God's Word expose our hearts and show us the motives that lie within for why we are following Jesus.
“I could never do that!"
Has this thought ever crossed your mind? Maybe it was watching someone walk up to a complete stranger and share the gospel. Maybe it was seeing a friend walk through a difficult season of life and still love Jesus and love others. Maybe it was someone who has moved to a place you would never go and lived on mission for the Lord. We’ve all had times we’ve looked at others and thought “I could never do that.”
But what if God is inviting you into some “I could never do that” situations for the spread of His gospel? That’s exactly what happens in Acts 8 as the story of the early church continues.
This week in our study of the Book of Acts, a Jesus follower will be murdered. That is harsh and direct, but it's true. It is what happened.
Why was he murdered? For his faith.
We turn our attention to the first martyr of the church. Literally, this man pays the greatest earthly cost he could possibly pay because of his allegiance to Christ. He is willing to die for the one who died for him.
There are three questions we need answers to this week as we look at someone who suffered the ultimate suffering because of their faith in Christ:
1) Where was God in this?
2) What is God doing through this?
3) How does Stephen remain tender-hearted toward God and others in spite of this?
The answer to these three questions may be answers we need for times of hardship and tragedy in our own life one day. Don't miss the important lessons to be learned from the church's first martyr.
If we miss the lesson the apostles are teaching in these 7 verses in Acts, it could set the course of our body of Jesus followers on a very dangerous trajectory. We have to understand what happens in these 7 verses and why this is one of the most pivotal leadership decisions the apostles made in the early days of the Church.
People followed Jesus. How it typically worked is where Jesus went they went, and they'd just follow along as Jesus went about His life. They could see Him. They could be with Him. And then there came a day where Jesus looked at 72 of those who were following Him and he said, "Hey, I'm going to send you guys out. You're going on a mission...you are SENT!"
After He told them they were sent, He said some things to these sent people. He told them who they were going with, what they should (or shouldn't) bring on the journey, the reality of danger, how to respond to someone who invites them in for a meal, and what to do with a town that kicks them out. He prepared them for the mission He had sent them on.
We see this interaction in Luke 10, and we get 7 powerful principles we need to know as sent people embarking on our SENT Vision in the days ahead.
Following Jesus is the most joy-giving, purpose-defining, heart captivating reality we can ever know. We were created to follow Jesus. We were made for the glory of the Father through knowing the Son.
Following Jesus will at times be a costly commitment, though. In fact, Jesus Himself told people to count the cost before following Him. The cause of Christ will always lead to a cost for Christ. This week, we will watch the apostles pay a price for their devotion to Jesus. And it makes sense -- The Kingdom is growing, multitudes are coming to know Jesus, the church is bearing fruit. Anytime these things are happening, expect opposition.
The key to this week is seeing how the apostles respond to the evil inflicted on them. Do they leave with their heads hung low, licking their wounds, and playing the victim card? Or do they leave with arms raised high in praise, rejoicing that the Lord would count them worthy to suffer like Christ? And if their response is the latter, what's the secret to us responding to the costly cause of Christ in the same way?
A ripple effect is defined as: the continuing and spreading results of an event or action.
The ripple effect of God's powerful work among the Christians in the church in Acts was having a significant impact among those who weren't yet in the church. God at work among the Christians was rippling out to effect those who weren't Christians.
When God is at work among His people, those who don't yet know Him will be impacted by the ripple effect of what He is doing in and through His people. This week's passage leads us to ask three questions of our life and our church as to what kind of ripple effect we are having among those who don't yet know Christ.
Have you ever given something away and thought to yourself,
“Yeah, that was pretty awesome... I'm really generous... I hope someone acknowledges me for that.”?
Let’s face it, if we are honest, we have all been there. It is safe to say that this is normal. Interestingly, last week, as we studied God’s Word, we learned that God is inviting us to step into a life of joyful, radical generosity. A generosity that is motivated by the gospel. The believers were in such unity that no one considered his belongings to be his own, but rather he was merely a steward of God’s resources. Inevitably, this created a warm and joyful time in the life of the church.
This week however, we are introduced to a married couple that brought about a massive shift in the church’s narrative, causing the scene to become dreadfully dark, dreary, and dangerous. The reason… “Selfish Generosity."
It isn't normal or natural for people to give up things they do have for people who don't have. Something at our very core whispers to us to accumulate money and things for our own prestige, security, or comfort. Anytime you see someone joyfully sacrifice what they do have to meet the needs of others, you know there is a greater force at work in their life.
In this week's message, we will watch the community of Jesus followers radically sacrificing what they have to meet the needs of others who don't have. And they aren't doing this because Peter got up and preached a message telling them that they should. They did this out of an overflow of love and joy for one another.
Jesus invites us into the joy of a radically generous life. We study what this could look like for us, and talk specifically of the exciting season ahead for our church and how this will call each of us to joyfully, radically sacrifice.
Have you ever flipped through the channels on the TV and stopped at an infomercial? You know it's time to do something else with your day when you stop at an infomercial, but typically within the first few minutes you'll hear this phrase, "This will change your life!"
Really? It will CHANGE my life?
This "change your life" thing is thrown out all over the place, but the reality is we all know this is an oversell. We are let down constantly from things that promise to change our life but don't.
There is only one message that can completely transform a life. There is only one message that HAS changed my life: the message of the good news of the grace offered to us in Jesus.
So Peter and John preach Jesus and the religious leaders don't respond too well to the whole thing. Threats are levied, a lot of tension is in the air, the response isn't great.
So we have seen the religious leaders response, now how will the Jesus followers respond? What will be the response to the threats that have been thrown out? Peter and John will rejoin the group, relay the threats from the religious authorities, and then something so common among these early Jesus followers happens: they pray.
But there are two elements to this prayer that makes this so uncommon. These two elements will transform the way we react to hardship that comes our way when we obey Jesus. These two elements will change the way we pray when life gets hard.
We saw in last week's passage the power of God work through Peter to heal a beggar who couldn't walk. This has naturally attracted a crowd. Peter uses the opportunity to tell everyone about Jesus. But on the periphery, there are some people who don't like what's happening. It's the same group who didn't like what Jesus was up to.
The religious authorities are going to interrupt the sermon this week, and Peter and John are going to jail. Their proclamation of Jesus is going to be met with strong opposition. Their proclamation of Jesus will cost them. Will they go on proclaiming even in the face of opposition?
It's easy to witness about Jesus when the message is accepted and people are grateful to hear it. It is much more difficult when the message is met with opposition, backlash, and even anger. How do we persevere in boldness to witness for Christ in the face of opposition? What does this boldness look like and what should we expect?
Peter and John were walking into the temple area to pray when a beggar who couldn't walk began begging. While everyone else walked past, they stopped. The beggar thought he was about to get some change, instead his life was about to change.
With the proof of a radically changed life in their midst, the people flocked to the scene. So what did Peter and John do? They told everyone what happened. They explained how this person everyone had seen for years in a helpless state was now radically transformed.
In this sermon, we unpack the story and learn two characteristics that mark an uncommon witness for Christ. If Christ has called us to witness, let's witness in an uncommon way!
Have you ever noticed that a fresh bonfire fire always burns brighter and hotter than fire that has been burning a while? I’m not much of an outside, nature guy, but I do know that there are a few things you can do to keep the fire burning hot and even see it grow stronger over time.
In much the same way, if your passion for God has begun to dwindle and you long to rekindle the wonder of God back into your life, or perhaps you are currently experiencing the wonder of God and want to keep it, then join us as we discover what the early followers of Jesus did to not only accelerate their passion for God, but also experience something remarkably uncommon.
120 Jesus followers gathered following the days of Jesus' ascension. Then one day the Spirit came. This Spirit empowered the proclamation of Jesus. Peter preached, 3,000 got saved, and it was evident that the Holy Spirit would in fact be the power the church would need for the supernatural spread of the Jesus message.
What did Peter say to the crowd that had gathered on Pentecost? What is the message he gave to the people then that is the crucial message for every heart now? What is the right response to hearing of Jesus, and have I responded to Jesus the way God calls me to?
Come watch as the church grows by 26 times after one Spirit-empowered sermon that Peter preached on Pentecost. Come with unbelievers who need to hear of a Savior who has come to save them.
Jesus said wait, and His people have waited. Now the wait is over, the people are gathered, and the Spirit is going to come in power.
What happened on the day of Pentecost? How did these first followers of Jesus immediately demonstrate this filling of the Holy Spirit that happened? How are we filled with the Holy Spirit today and what should be true of us if we are?
Have you ever taken a 2-year-old with you while getting an oil change? You're hoping for one of those quick in and out oil changes the place promises. And then it isn't. So there you are in the waiting room with a 2-year-old waiting...and waiting...and waiting.
It is interesting to see how a 2-year-old waits. They crawl under chairs--put their face up to the window to watch the work going on in the garage, awkwardly stare at everyone else coming in and out of the waiting room. We typically wait much differently, but their waiting is more fun!
Jesus told his disciples to wait for the Spirit. He promised that when the Spirit came they would have power to be His witnesses here, near, and far. Then Jesus ascended. And there they were left in the quiet to wait. But the important takeaway from this week's passage was HOW they waited. This wasn't passive waiting but active waiting.
There is one driving takeaway from their active waiting. One thing that if we implement into seasons of waiting will change the way we wait and build trust in the waiting. What is this one thing and how do we live it out actively when God tells us to wait?
Have you ever been invited to join something that you couldn't believe you got the privilege to be a part of? Maybe it was a team you were invited on to? Or a special project at work you were called to run point on? Maybe you were selected for a job you never expected you would have? At one time or another we all have probably paused and pinched ourselves over the privilege of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
As God's people, we are God's plan to make disciples and spread his glory across the globe. We get the unbelievable privilege of being sent by God to witness about the Son of God who changes lives for the glory of God. And the best part? God has literally promised to send His Spirit to power this mission he has called us to!
This Sunday, we unpack God's plan to use God's people with God's power to build God's Kingdom for God's glory. Do you understand that you are part of God's Kingdom building plan? Do you understand the privilege we have been given to witness about Jesus near and far? Do you understand the power He has promised us in His Spirit to carry this out?
We are part of God's plan and we are promised God's power.
Have you ever taken an assessment of your life and asked the question, "Is this really what Jesus had in mind when He invited me to come follow Him?" Have you ever read the book of Acts and thought, "Does my life and does my church reflect the kind of power I see manifest in these early Jesus followers?"
But let's not forget something. They weren't exceptional people. In fact, they were no different from you and me. They were plagued with all the sin and shortcomings that you and I face. So what's the secret to the powerful work we see in the Book of Acts? Here it is: The book of Acts is simply the work of Jesus continued through His Spirit in His people! The people of the first church were a people consumed, compelled, and propelled by the Spirit of God.
And so we turn to our study in Acts this Sunday and ask the question, "What if the Spirit of God delights to overwhelm the people of God in the same way today? What if what we saw God do then is possible here and now? And how do we experience this kind of vibrant walk with Jesus in our own lives today? This week, we begin one of the most exciting sermon series journeys to date, a journey through the Acts of the Apostles.
The word “unafraid” is used very intentionally. What prevents us from telling other people about Jesus? Fear.
Fear of rejection.
Fear of damaging the relationship.
Fear of what they will think of us.
We don’t need another message this week that simply says we should tell people about Jesus. We need to see what is at stake. We need to know what God has called us to in this. We need to see how He has equipped us for it!
Would you agree that prayer is often the most talked about and least practiced aspect of the Christian life?
Perhaps you’re like me and you have experienced the power of passionate and audacious prayer, and you have the desire to make this a regular habit in your personal walk with the Lord, but you tend to lack the commitment to do so. In a lot of ways, this reminds me of trying to fit into those jeans that, before the holidays, weren’t so tight. But somehow, I never seem to be able to keep the motivation to wake up early and hit the treadmill in order to lose some of the “hindrances” of my previously comfortable jeans.
To be honest, I don’t need to be told to pray more passionately to the Lord, just like I don't need a scale to remind myself that I need to exercise. What I need is MOTIVATION.
In this week's text, God provides us with some of the greatest motivation we could ever dream of in order to awaken our hearts again to the powerful effects of prayer.
Have you seen the news lately?
It seems as if the world around us is falling apart one day at a time. You probably don’t need convincing that our world feels broken and spinning out of control. But what if I told you that all of the brokenness and hurt and pain and issues we see around us comes down to one thing?
And what if I told you that the one thing is worship? Join us on Sunday to see how worship is both the problem and the solution to the brokenness we see in ourselves and in the world around us.
A few weeks ago I was in Chicago, and as I was walking down Michigan Avenue I would lift my head vertically in awe of the towering buildings overhead. Then I began to think, “I wonder what the foundation underground holding up these buildings looks like?” You cannot build something that high into the air without building a solid foundation deep into the ground.
No building can stand without a firm foundation, and no church will stand without some core biblical pillars it is built on. Our church is built on 4 Pillars taken right from the word of God. Don’t miss the next 4 Sundays as we unpack each of these 4 Pillars and study together why Harvest is all about each of these Pillars.
This Sunday, we start with our Unapologetic Preaching Pillar. What does it mean for us to be a church built on Unapologetic Preaching? How does Unapologetic Preaching change lives? And how do we make sure we never waver from this commitment?
The Philippians stepped up to send a generous gift to Paul while he was in a time of need. The thing is, this wasn't the first time they had given generously to Paul's ministry! As Paul says thanks to them at the close of his letter, he lets us in on something about the Philippians -- they had established a pattern of generous giving towards Kingdom work and the care of others.
The Philippians seem to get something that God desperately wants us to get -- that God is glorified and we are blessed when we live a life of generosity.
What do the Philippians seem to get about giving that we need to get? What does Paul have to say back to them that we need to pick up on to be the generously-giving people God has called his people to be?
We are naturally discontent. We have all walked down the road of seeking to find contentment in stuff, seasons, and circumstances only to find what we hoped would deliver deep contentment has left us totally discontent.
I'm discontent with my job… discontent that I don't have a job… discontent and wanting to retire from my job… discontent now that I did retire from my job.
I'm discontent that I'm not married…discontent in my marriage… discontent and honestly would rather not be married.
I'm discontent about that season from the past being done… discontent over the season I'm currently in… discontent longing for the next season that is ahead.
Contentment can be had in a deeply discontent world, and there is good news for us that four verses this Sunday are going to tell us how. All of us are yearning for the peaceful satisfaction that is contentment, and this Sunday we talk about how we get it.
Resolve Conflicts. Rejoice Always. Pray with Thanksgiving. Protect your Thoughts.
Sound good? These are evidences of standing firm in the Lord. When we are standing in the full measure of God's love and plan for us we experience love, joy, and peace that can only come from the Gospel. If we are seeing ourselves or fellow believers slip in these areas, we must return to our Heavenly Father who is calling us to stand firm in His promises, so that His love may stand out to the world.
If you have ever been to a place that has a vastly different culture than the one you are used to, I bet you felt like a foreigner or outsider right away. In the practical way we live our life, we often look like a product of the culture or country in which we declare our citizenship.
This week God is going to lay before us a challenging question. Where have you declared your citizenship? Do you see your citizenship ultimately in a country, commonwealth, or culture on this earth, or do you understand that your citizenship is ultimately rooted in a kingdom to come.
What does it mean to have our citizenship in heaven and how do we live out in the here and now a citizenship of a kingdom that is to come?
I'm not a runner. I do it because I have to, but I can't say I enjoy it. I am not fast, have never been fast, and have always been jealous of people who are fast. I am definitely NOT a runner.
But I do know some things about running. I know that if you are competing in a race, you want to keep your eyes up, fixed ahead on the finish line. I also know that you don't let up before the finish line, but you run through it and lean forward toward it.
Paul is going to use some runner lingo with the Philippians in this week's passage. Like a good coach, he's going to instruct us on how to go about running this race of life until we hit the glory of the finish line when we will be with Christ.
We all need a "look up and lean forward" message. Some of us are wasting too much energy looking down in shame or behind us in guilt. Let's let the Lord fix our eyes forward to what He has called us to this day and in the days to come.
A guy walks into a job interview with a piece of paper in his hand. It is pretty short, just one sided, but on it is information that will be a critical part in either helping him or hindering him from getting the job. We call it a resume. Resumes are really important professionally.
Resumes, though, can be extremely dangerous spiritually.
When we live trying to compile a resume of our goodness that we hope to pull out before God one day and use as a tool to prove that we are right with Him, we miss the boat of the gospel. Tim Keller says, "Some of us rebel against God by being exceptionally bad, others of us rebel against God by being exceptionally good."
This week's message is for really good people. Really morally upright people. Model citizens. People who if you tell them, "You need to be forgiven" would reply with "for what?" Some of us in our desire to work hard to be right with God, may be missing the Only One we must know to truly be made right with God.
In any great story or in the midst of any great work you will find some unsung heroes. Those people over in the corner, quietly yet crucially going about their business. These are people no one is talking about; they often don't make the headlines, and yet without them the work doesn't get done.
This week the spotlight will turn to two quietly crucial unsung heroes in the book of Philippians. As we look at these two people, we will see two quiet character traits God uses greatly.
Are we willing to be the unseen, quiet, faithful people God delights to use? Are these character traits true in our lives? How do we allow God to grow these things in us to a greater extent?
There is a great hashtag out there called #firstworldproblems. This gets attached to something on social media when someone complains about something that people in other parts of the world would give anything to have a chance to experience. Here are a few examples of #firstworldproblems:
"I can't believe I bought a toaster with no bagel setting."
"I am so over Apple products."
"The worst part about my mom having a cupcake business is I hate cake and that's all there ever is to eat."
No matter how good it gets, it seems we can always find something to complain about. Complaining can become almost second nature to us that we often don't even know we are doing it.
This week, God is going to call us to do everything without complaining or arguing. Everything. Even complaint-worthy things. And God is going to tell us how He has given us the power to do this, and what He will accomplish IN us and THROUGH us when this becomes the norm for our life.
Have you ever been challenged to do something that you knew would be far beyond the realm of your current condition? Challenges like jogging a marathon when the last time you went for a jog was back in the 80's when high socks were popular. Or perhaps someone has challenged you to climb a high mountain and you get winded walking up to the second floor of your house. Its not likely going to happen.
Well in a similar way, living out the Christian life is far beyond the realm of our conditions. Following Jesus isn't just difficult, it is quite frankly, impossible. In ourselves we don't have the strength to be like Christ nor the energy to serve Him.
In this weeks passage, Paul points out that we all desperately need help to truly follow Christ the way He has called us to.
We need His power. Paul tells us that "God is at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure." This is great news! The same God that created the world and all that is in it is working in us so that we can live out the life God has designed us for.
There are some really convicting statements in this week's passage:
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
We love to celebrate when people live like this. In fact, all of us who read this want this to be said of our own lives. And yet we all know how truly difficult it is to live this out. Because of some deeply embedded selfishness, I always find it easier to operate out of selfish ambition and look to my own needs before others'.
We study one paragraph in scripture that could change everything about how we live a life joyfully emptying ourselves out for others. This passage will lay out something we may have missed for too long: the answer to the power of HOW we actually live this out.
Responses tell us a lot. Search Youtube for reactions to the Cubs World Series win and you'll find grown men crying and adults running around houses like kids. Watch a dad surprise his family by coming home earlier than anticipated from a military deployment and you'll see a reaction that is fitting for the occasion. Reactions to good things are just natural.
The life of the Christian is to simply be lived in response to the awesome news that the Gospel brought to us. When the Gospel has gripped our hearts, it can't help but flow out of the response of our life.
This week we talk about what the life lived worthy of the Gospel looks like. A life worthy of the Gospel is the most powerful picture we bring to the showing and telling of Jesus to the watching world. Let's learn together in Philippians 1:27-30 what a "manner of life worthy of the Gospel" looks like.
Often, the worst case scenario in life would be death.
Now that sounds pretty morbid, and yet what if Christians saw even this worst case scenario as a win? What if we walked around as Jesus followers every day knowing that to live is a win, and even to die in Christ is a win? To live means we get to be used another day to show and share the joy of Jesus with others. To die means we get to go be with Jesus.
Life and death for the Christian is a win/win situation.
So do we live as if this is true? And how would our day-to-day life change if we started to live with this perspective? What if we really lived out the mantra:
"To live is Christ, and to die is gain"?
In this message we find out what a "win/win in life or death" walk with Jesus looks like.
We all sacrifice. To sacrifice is to give up something of value for another thing we deem of greater value. A parent joyfully sacrifices some things for their children. Someone seeking an accomplishment in life, gladly sacrifices some things on the journey toward that accomplishment.
The question is not whether we sacrifice, the question is what will we sacrifice for? And the question that will confront us is this: "What would I gladly sacrifice if it meant the gospel would advance to lost people?"
What if we could have joy in any circumstance that confronts us knowing that every circumstance life brings is merely an opportunity to show and tell the gospel? And what if the joy of the gospel going forth began to outweigh the pain of difficult circumstances.
We study 7 verses together that will teach us how to live in such a way that no matter the cost, our joy can advance when the gospel advances.
So much of the joy in life comes from life done together with others we love. Often times when we look back at some of the best teams we were on, the greatest accomplishments we have achieved, and the best trips we have been part of, what we find is that what made them special was the people we did it with.
Doing life together in a Jesus community with others whose hearts have been saturated by the gospel is one of the greatest privileges and joys of walking with Christ.
We begin our series called "Gospel Joy" through the book of Philippians as we talk about four joyful realities of the gospel life done together!
Money is powerful. It’s a topic the Bible brings up over and over again because it seems as if God knows our hearts will want money to wrestle 1st place away from Him. God is so passionate about this topic that in his wisdom book, Proverbs, he mentions money in some way more than 46 times!
God wants us to know some things about how we honor him with our money. How do we keep from believing that it is ours in the first place? How do we fight the urge to make it a god instead of seeing it as God’s and an instrument used to honor God?
God in his wisdom gives us clear principles to direct what we believe about our money and how we use this money. Through this message we will all pursue financial freedom in what we believe about our money, how we use our money, and most importantly, how God is honored through our money.
Do I always have to learn lessons the hard way?
There is an old phrase that says, “experience is a great teacher,” and there is certainly a lot of truth in that statement. Many of the things we learn from life experience can be very rewarding, but other things very painful and expensive. This week we study the wisdom of Solomon and ways to avoid learning the painful and expensive lessons of life. Playing hooky from the school of hard knocks is always a good day!
Why did I do that?
We have all walked away from something we had just done and said, “Why did I do that?” Or often isn’t it true that we don’t even realize the foolishness of a decision until much later? All of us know that at any given time we are merely moments away from a really destructive life decision.
And here is the thing, no one sets out to make a decision that will greatly damage their life. It is never something we are trying to do, yet through one foolish decision, or a series of these decisions, we find ourselves walking down a dangerously destructive road.
We need the wisdom of God to lean on to guard our way from making deeply destructive decisions in life. Fortunately in Proverbs 7, God will give us five ways to avoid a destructive decision.
Why did I say that?
We’ve all said things we wish we could take back. We’ve all thrown out some words that we wish we could reel back in the moments they left our mouth. Our words carry unbelievable power and reveal what’s in our heart.
God’s Word has much to say about our words, and Proverbs outlines for us what the speech of the wise man or woman looks like. In this message, Proverbs is going to guide us into 3 wisdom giving principles to guide our small, yet powerful, tongues. Together let’s seek the wise life in how we speak as followers of Jesus.
I’m lost… Lord, what do I do?
Lost.
It’s a terrible feeling. “Lost” brings with it a certain knot to our stomach that produces a very distinct and unwelcome feeling. We remember that feeling as kids and got separated from mom or dad at the grocery store… lost. We know what it is like to pull our car to the side of the road with zero clue where we are… lost.
But these feelings are nothing compared to an utter feeling of lostness in our life. God, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? Show me! Help!
We as people must acknowledge that unless we have the Lord’s direction, we will wander around life lost. And yet God doesn’t want his people wandering aimlessly searching for direction. He desires to direct our path. In our passage this week, he gives us 3 principles headlined by 3 action words that we can apply to our life today to receive the direction he wants to provide for us!
We’ve all walked away from a conversation with someone and went, “Now, that is a wise man/woman!” There was something about the spiritual depth in which they spoke. There was an ability they had to cut through the peripheral, surface things and get to the heart. There was an evident godly wisdom to them that left us walking away praising the Lord for what they spoke into our life.
And we also walked away saying, “I want that for my life!”
We know the blessings of wisdom, but how do we get godly wisdom? How do we become people whose lives are built on the wisdom of God? In this sermon, we take a look at how we gain wisdom. But here’s the thing, what if we get wisdom not through the direct pursuit of wisdom, but actually by pursuing something else? What if through pursuing this key thing, we get wisdom as a byproduct? And what is this, then, that we should be pursuing?
Let’s study together how all of us can gain a heart of wisdom.
The invention of the Google Search Engine has truly revolutionized our world. Google singlehandedly has the capacity to make all of us appear to be smarter than we really are. Someone may ask a question that no-one has the answer for and you quickly “Google it” and announce… “Billy Ray Cyrus is 55 years old, born on August 25, 1965, and it was a Tuesday!” Ok well maybe you have never done that, but we all know that in life there are question that we are faced with that only God can answer. The powerful research engine of Google can not even in the slightest compare to the wisdom and insight God can provide for us in the ebb and flow of life. So we invite you to join us as we embark on a new series through the book of Proverbs entitled “Wisdom”.
In this sermon, we begin our series zeroing in on the incredible blessings God has in store for those that seek a life of Wisdom
Have you ever walked away from a dinner with a family you recently met and said, "Wow, they have something special going on"? You could sense a close bond between them. You could feel a respect the kids had for their parents, and a deep love from the parents to their kids. It was evident that their marriage was in a place of thriving. Your time with them made an imprint on your heart of what you longed your family to one day be.
All of us want to be a part of a flourishing family. And all of us want to be a part of a flourishing faith family. But what defines or characterizes a church, or faith family, that is flourishing together? This week, we close our study in the book of 1 Thessalonians by learning five signs of a flourishing faith family.
May these traits define our church, and may we seek these things amongst our family of faith for the rest of our days.
Do you remember watching the Left Behind movie as a kid, and as the movie finished and the credits scrolled, all you could do was sit there wide-eyed and paralyzed in fear. This is a common reaction for Christians when faced with the topic of the rapture and the second coming of Christ. Many believers associate the rapture with fear.
But what if this beautiful doctrine and truth of Jesus returning for His people is meant to produce comfort and encouragement, not fear and trembling for the believer? This week, we talk about Jesus coming back and the hope, joy, and encouragement that this brings to those who believe.
But what if you are still fearful about this? What if it produces more uneasiness than comfort? We talk about how you can walk away from this message more excited than ever for the reality that Jesus is coming back. This can be the day your fear over this topic subsides.
Jesus said something pretty astounding in regards to how His followers would show the world that they were truly his followers. He said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Our love for each other communicates our following of Jesus. This week, we study a passage that spurs us on to greater love for each other in the family of God. And in it we find 3 ways we can exercise a deep love for each other. Here's the thing, these 3 ways to show love to your brother aren't things we often think about. So let's grow in our love for each other as we study some practical ways for us to extend the love of Christ that we have so generously received.
Is it God's will for me to go to that college? Is it God's will for me to marry that person? Is it the will of God for me to make that career change? One of the leading questions for Christians centers around the will of God for our lives. We pray for clarity for it. We sometimes do funny things looking for "signs" of it. It can paralyze us from doing anything for fear that we are doing something outside the will of God. But what if there are passages of scripture that tell us flat out what God's will for our life is, how we pursue it, and why we should pursue it? What if God's word is that clear about? Good news: It is! And this week's passage is one of those "God's will clarifying" passages. But what if God's will is way different than we often think about it? Let's study this together.
Waste… It literally means a bad use of something valuable that you only have a limited amount of. I don't know many people who would say, "sign me up for that." None of us like to waste something. If we're going to do something, we want to get all that we can out of it. We've seen that the Thessalonian church has gone through affliction. Following Jesus has been difficult, to say the least, in their context. They've suffered for the decision to follow Jesus. In the midst of all this, Paul wants to make sure they don't waste their suffering. It's possible for them to walk through all these difficult things… and it be a waste. However, we're going to see that they're not just making it through their suffering…they're thriving in their suffering. It's possible for us to do the same. Listen for 3 ways to make sure we're suffering well and not wasting it.
Imagine the Apostle Paul standing before Jesus, and Jesus asking him to point to the greatest accomplishment in his life. Imagine all the ways Paul could answer:
The missionary journeys he could point to.
Some extremely productive sermon he preached.
A visit to a city that brought many to the Lord.
A resume of accomplishments with his life.
And yet, in the passage this week, Paul tells us what his crowning accomplishment before Jesus is…It's people. What if our greatest joy in life will come not from ultimately pouring into projects and products, but what if it will come from pouring into people? And how do we become someone who makes the people in our lives one of our greatest priorities? This week we will see 3 principles from 1 Thessalonians of what our lives will look like when we make people one of our greatest priorities.
If God spoke, would you listen? So often I hear people say, "I just wish God would speak to me…" Good news…He has! He has spoken His very word to us, and we have it at our fingertips. We can carry it around with us, we can turn to it whenever we need. In fact, God says His word has everything we need to live this life. Now we turn to four verses that will give us a greater passion to study, meditate, memorize, and become people of the word. We will see His word for what it is, and we will leave with a greater passion to build our lives on the foundation of His word.
"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." In this verse you can literally feel the love of the Apostle for these Jesus followers in Thessalonica. He shared with them the message of love that saved them and he showed them that message of love in how he lived with them. We have a message to share. If we have been saved by the gospel we are called to spread that gospel. In this scripture, we will see 5 "must-knows" of showing and telling the gospel. May we equip ourselves this weekend to tell the gospel with our mouths and show the gospel with our lives. You are loved.
We live in a day when a picture or song or video can be posted online and within 24 hours be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. When something like this catches and spreads, we have a saying for it…it has "gone viral". This week we will see that the faith of the Thessalonians and what God is doing in their midst has "gone viral" in a world where the saying didn't yet exist. People are talking about the faith of these people all over the region, and all over the world. What was it about the Thessalonians' faith that led to a viral impact for the Lord? And what would a vibrant and viral walk with the Lord look like for us today? Don't miss this message and the 3 elements to a virally contagious life that will lead to impact for the Lord far beyond what we could imagine.
Hope is a powerful force. When you hear the stories of someone fighting for survival, what often keeps them alive and moving forward is a finish line of hope. They hope to see their family again. They hope to be able to hug their wife and hold their kids. When there is a finish line of hope, we will endure much to taste the goodness of that finish line because the hope of the future outweighs the troubles of the present. This week we begin a letter of hope. This is a warm letter from Paul to Christians in a city called Thessalonica. These Jesus followers are joyfully enduring much because of a coming hope they are confident in. Do you need some hope in life? Need to know that the hope of the future outweighs the weight of the present? Join us for the next 12 weeks as together we go on a journey of hope! You are loved.