Let’s Talk, Part 6: Prayer — Talking to God
Let’s Talk, Part 6: Prayer — Talking to God Prayer, essentially, in very, very simple terms, is talking to God. It’s not magical words that are spoken. It’s not laid out [as a] formula of how to accomplish something. It’s really, in its simplistic version, a conversation with God; it’s relating to God. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
Let’s Talk, Part 5: Let’s Talk About Money (2/2)
Let’s Talk, Part 5: Let’s Talk About Money (2/2) Delayed gratification is huge with an eye to the future if—if—they’re goals that we’re led by, by the Holy Spirit. I think we get wrapped up into saving just to save, and to have this financial security. There’s no such thing as financial security. There is in the world’s eyes, but there’s really no such thing as financial security. Our security and hope is only in one thing, it can only…
Let’s Talk, Part 4: Let’s Talk About Money (1/2)
Let’s Talk, Part 4: Let’s Talk About Money (1/2) Earning allows us to provide for our families, of course, but it also allows us to bless others and to help the Kingdom work. And knowing that everything is God’s to begin with helps us to better understand why giving is ultimately the first thing that we need to do with our money — and, frankly, our time and talents as well. [Our apologies — due to technical difficulties, the recording…
Let’s Talk, Part 3: Let’s Talk About Radical Truth
Let’s Talk, Part 3: Let’s Talk About Radical Truth Ultimately, in order to accomplish any of this — any of the perfect living, any of the commitment to radical truth telling, any commitment to faithfulness — we must be a people who stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ. We must stand firm in our trust in His promises. We must stand firm in the gospel message. We must stand firm in the knowledge of scripture. We must stand…
Let’s Talk, Part 1: Let’s Talk About My Angry Heart
Let’s Talk, Part 1: Let’s Talk About My Angry Heart I believe this: THEIR need for Jesus is greater than YOUR need for respect. The world’s need for Christ is greater than your saying, “I deserve more. You’re offending me because I am better than that!” Well, you’re salt and light in a pretty dark world. And the world will constantly offend you. The world will always prop itself up as better than you. … Make a choice to not…
We are Family, Part 7: The Family Worships Together
We are Family, Part 7: The Family Worships Together The greatest thing about a family of faith coming to worship together is that we are literally a witness to the rest of the world of what Christ can do. And when we come into a relationship with him, worship is a witness of the gospel story, of a dead heart becoming new again. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
We are Family, Part 6: Single and Seeking
We are Family, Part 6: Single and Seeking Why is the gospel good news for those of us who are single—especially when we don’t necessarily really want to be? The gospel is good news because Jesus is pursuing you. … God sent Jesus to the cross to pursue a relationship with you, and He continues to pursue you. Jesus was obedient to that plan because He wants that relationship with you, too.
We are Family, Part 5: The Gospel of Dad
We are Family, Part 5: The Gospel of Dad Here’s how you need to dress for the job [of godly fatherhood]: you dress with humility. It’s like you walk out the door in the morning-time and instead of putting on a suit, to make sure everybody knows that I’m the boss, you put on a cloak of humility. … Your greatest need is to be the most humble man on the planet. Ephesians puts it this way: ‘Love your wife…
We are Family, Part 4: The Youths
We are Family, Part 4: The Youths To the students in the room: my hope and my prayer is that you will faithfully and boldy follow after Jesus and go to the world with [the] good news that He is Lord, because Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer. Family: the gospel is good news to the youth because it’s ultimately not about them; it’s about Jesus. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
We are Family, Part 3: Seniors
We are Family, Part 3: Seniors This is a temporary residence. If I’m going to grow in maturity as an older person—not just growing with grace, but growing with pure gospel presence in my life—I will live as a stranger, not as a permanent resident. … How pathetically sad [to think], “I’m a permanent resident on this earth and a stranger in eternity,” when in reality, as a disciple of Christ, it’s the exact opposite: I’m a stranger on this…
We are Family, Part 2: The Body of Christ
Christ’s body is made up of believers of every race, tribe, nation and ethnicity—all in communion with the Holy Spirit. … On a cellular level, we have an individual purpose, and we’re called to do something in our specific time, and God is working through us where we are—but if we looked at the whole picture and stepped back out of time and space, we’d see how all these individual cells of human beings all combine into the body of Christ that is moving across time and space to seek and save the lost. And when we understand this perspective of what Paul is describing, of being different parts yet part of the same body, we understand there’s this much deeper connection between us, that may be right on the surface. As believers, there’s a deep connection between you and me, and it’s that we’re all individually a part of Jesus working to save those around us. And honestly, how can there be a deeper connection than that?
We are Family, Part 1: Motherhood—It’s Complicated!
I want to make sure that all the moms sitting here today know that you are present in the Bible. The Bible was written for you just as much as for everyone else. And just like everyone else, it applies to your personal, complicated situation. Again, it may not be in the way that we expect, but the Bible speaks to the complicated lives of mothers. And the most important way it does that is through the gospel. The gospel brings freedom to the complicated lives of mothers. … The message of the gospel means that you can lay down your burdens, your failures, your expectations, and live out each day in the freedom and dependence of Jesus.
Buliisa: Experience Community (Celebration Service)
Buliisa: Experience Community Celebration Service We can’t do everything. We’re not going to go everywhere. We can’t be everywhere. But we can be managers of [God’s] field, of that spot He’s given us. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 4
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 4: God Invites Us to Join Him Jesus invites us to join Him now, taking this gospel, this Good News, so that it can be passed on to others. … We are [God’s] image bearers; we are also the bearers of Good News. It is really our responsibility to carry the Good News. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 3
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 3: God Won God is truly all in, in order to bring us back to life. … This was God’s plan from the very beginning. It’s not a back-up plan! … God created it holy. Man quickly messed it up, but literally the day that mankind said, ‘I’m rebelling and falling away from You,’ God said, ‘MY plan is to rescue you personally.’ He won at the resurrection. And now we get…
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 2
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 2: God Engaged The principle of the Good News that I arrive at is this: God engages us at our point of brokenness. The Good News is, God says, ‘I want to work with you. I want [you] to find wholeness and help and healing’ — and He can, and does, make broken lives whole again. … God says, this world is disrupted and I am the only One who can make…
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 1
What’s So Good About the Good News? Part 1: God Noticed Humility. Trust. Faith. That’s what makes the Good News good news. God notices. Be humble before God, trust Him, and let your faith supplant your fear and panic. Download the PDF above to follow along with notes.
Shattered, Part 5
SHATTERED, Part 5: Society Shattered The theme of this story is about not finding our eternal security and ultimate meaning of life based upon a life that is built to honor ourselves. … This message points out that we strive often to be God ourselves, instead of learning to be image-bearers of God. The Tower of Babel attempts to reach God by ‘my own standards’—we try, in a sense, to fashion a life that exalts myself, my society, my way,…
Shattered, Part 4
SHATTERED, Part 4: Good Shattered God is making a point here that God’s favor falls on those who rest in His grace. Ultimately these verses show us humanity’s sin, and that that sin breaks the heart of the Lord. It breaks the heart of Yahweh to the point [at which] his wrath must purify the earth. And yet, in the midst of that just wrath for our corruption, God’s grace is still made available for those who rest in Him.…
Shattered, Part 3
SHATTERED, PART 3: Family Shattered We’re all infected by sin. Our souls are stained with it. Only Jesus’s blood can wash us clean. If we are to be a whole people—individuals [who are] fully who God created us to be, undivided, without constant regret or remorse, not hiding—then we need to seriously look at our own sin and wrap our heads around our true state. Not continuing to believe that our will is somehow inherently good, that our desires are…
Shattered, Part 2
Shattered, Part 2: Freedom Shattered Sin is not just an activity. … In reality, sin is you. Sin is me. Because the only thing that’s perfect is the Holy God, and if I walk away from a relationship with the Holy God, I am very quickly unholy—which is what the story of Genesis 3 really initiates. … We live a life that tries to say, even as Christians, “Yeah, Jesus is the answer, but let’s just deal with behavior modification.”…
Shattered, Part 1
SHATTERED, Part 1: Perfection Shattered You are hopeless and helpless in sin! It’s bad, guys. … Except this is also where the redemption story starts. This is why when we teach scripture, it’s attached to the gospel. The gospel is the GOOD NEWS. Left to yourself, there’s not a behavior you can live — there’s not a lifestyle you can have, there’s not an amount of money you can offer to the poor, there’s not an amount of time you…
Origins, Part 4
Origins, Part 4: He Rested, Therefore I Find My Rest “Worship is not just a physical protocol of a checked-off list of things to follow and things to do; but it instead is a heart of reflection, a heart of observance, of reverence, of recognition. It’s a heart of total dependence upon the Creator God of the universe. … It’s much easier for [God] to give me a checklist and for me to check it off than it is for…
Origins, Part 3
Even though physically we don’t look like God, internally, deeply spiritually, the RUAH of God sets us apart and says my identity is defined by my relationship to the almighty Creator Elohim, God of the universe.
Origins, Part 2
Every one of us has walked into this place this morning with something that concerns us. … We’ve got something lingering over our heads, somehow, small or big. The beauty of Genesis is [that] when we learn to live in awe of the Creator, we no longer have to live in awe of the circumstances of our lives. … The story of Genesis is not “a cosmic accident.” It’s a story of life! It’s a story of God instilling life and direction.