Text: Romans 1:16-17 | Listen to Message Why The Reformation [Still] Matters 500 years ago, a 33 year-old German monk left his monastery, walked across the town of Wittenberg, and nailed a poster to the door of Castle Church. Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” – as they came to be known – were an invitation to public theological debate, primarily with one Johann Tetzel. Luther was challenging Tetzel over the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences to raise funds to renovate St. Peter’s Basilica back in Rome. That was October 31, 1517. The Protestant Reformation was born. And the rest, as they...
Text: Luke 18:35-43 | Listen to Message Eyes of Faith “God, if you show me __________________, then I will …” Do you ever find yourself thinking this way – as if you need to see in order to believe? Do you ever put conditions or prerequisites on your faith? This is the way people were in Jesus’ day: “Lord, show us a sign and then we’ll believe that you’re the Messiah.” One of his own disciples, Thomas, went so far as to say he would never believe in the Resurrection unless or until he saw the risen Jesus with his own...
Text: Various | Listen to Message How Do We Get There? In Part I: Where Are We Going? we shared 4 pillars of our vision for advancing the Gospel in our city. This isn’t something a few leaders can do for you; this is something we must all do together. In fact, the success of this vision lies with ordinary people doing extraordinary things, in faith, day after day after day. No strategy can change the heart of a city; only God can do that – and God works through people! #1: Worship Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and...
Texts: Various | Listen to Message Where Are We Going? It’s a great time to be a part of Grace City Denver! God has blessed us with a season of extraordinary unity, lives are being transformed, volunteers are living out what it means to be the church, and we see new people coming every week. So the vision that follows is not intended to replace all the good things that are happening, but rather to celebrate, amplify, and build upon them. There’s a lot we don’t know about how exactly all this will be fleshed out in the days ahead, but...
Text: Luke 18:15-34 | Listen to Message Entering The Kingdom Jesus, who is in the midst of teaching on the imminent coming of the kingdom of God and prayer, has a brief encounter with two groups of people. The first is a group of infants and children whose parents are bringing them to Jesus, who is in the midst of teaching. Instead of dismissing the children, Jesus uses this encounter to illustrate how he wants his followers to enter the Kingdom of God: with childlike faith. Jesus wants his followers to be totally dependent on Him for their faith — just...
Father, with shattered hearts and tear-stained faces We again grieve over the deadly violence of our land. Our brokenness cannot bring back the dead, And yet…we are broken. We have turned away from you to do things our way, And we have not honored you as God. We have built our identities on shifting sand, We have chased momentary, selfish pleasures, And we have worshiped anything but our Creator. You are the Redeemer, But we have told you we will save ourselves. You are the fountain of Living Water, But we have sought freedom from you in the desert. You...
Text: Luke 18:1-14 | Listen to Message The Paradox of Christian Prayer Everyone knows what it feels like when your prayers never seem to make any difference at all and you just want to quit. What’s the point of praying when the answer is always “no”? Maybe God hears other people when they cry out to him, but he doesn’t hear you. He doesn’t care about your problems. At least that’s the way it feels. In seasons of unanswered prayer, “disappointed” or “discouraged” is woefully inadequate to describe the agony you feel. You’re heartbroken. Exhausted. Crushed. Devastated. Luke seems to mock...
