Text: Ephesians 4:25-32 | Listen to Message Sticks And Stones Everything that comes out of your mouth is simply the overflow of what’s already dominating your heart. If you are a critical, complaining, truth-twisting gossip, it’s because your heart is full of spiritual cancer. It’s a simple fact that meek, forgiving, loving people don’t talk bad about others. Here’s something to remember whenever you hear someone gossiping or being critical of others behind their backs: you haven’t necessarily learned anything about the persons being discussed, but you’ve learned a ton about the person doing the discussing. He or she is proud....
Text: Luke 9:23-27, 57-62 | Listen to Message You First In Part I, we looked at what it means to deny – or even die to – yourself in order to follow Christ. In Part II, let’s go further in the same text and consider what it means to accept a new priority and agenda for your life. In this conversation that Jesus has with the crowds and with a few specific individuals, he shows us four things we tend to give our first and ultimate allegiance to: 1. Power, Prosperity, and Peace. This is what it means to “gain the...
Show me a thriving church, and I’ll show you a number of volunteers whose faithful service goes virtually unnoticed. Without these unsung heroes, much of the church’s ministry – and maybe the church itself – would fall flat. These servant-hearted individuals are not motivated by recognition; they’re driven by their love for God and others. These service spotlights are designed to affirm and encourage all of our volunteers – especially those who work behind the scenes – and to express gratitude for your selfless ministry. We see you, we honor you, and we thank God for you! This month’s service...
Text: Luke 9:23-27, 57-62 | Listen to Message Identity Crisis Christianity is often seen as little more than praying a prayer, changing one’s attitude toward Jesus from negative to positive, or adhering to a prescribed list of moral/spiritual behaviors. But when Jesus himself talked about what it meant to be a Christian – a follower of Christ – he had something radically different to say: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake...
Text: Luke 9:37-56 | Listen to Message The Remedy For Pride Jesus’ disciples are stumbling and bumbling their way through this section of Luke’s Gospel, displaying a remarkable lack of self-awareness: First, they can’t cast out a demon that Jesus gave them power over (Luke 9:1), apparently because they’re relying on their own technique and experience rather than trusting God for a fresh work of grace. Second, they can’t grasp what Jesus means about suffering and dying because they’ve already decided that this is not how the story – his or theirs – is supposed to go. Third, they’re arguing about...
Text: Luke 9:28-36 | Listen to Message Experiencing God’s Glory It’s a fantastic story: Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray with Peter, James, and John. Suddenly, the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elijah show up, and Jesus begins radiating a brilliant and blinding white light from within himself. The disciples are getting their first glimpse of his eternal and divine glory, long veiled by the ordinariness of his humanity. They witness firsthand the splendor, majesty, beauty, and awesomeness of the glory that flung the universe into existence by just a word from his mouth! And they hear God’s voice...
