Text: Luke 22:31-34, 54-62 | Listen to Message When You Fail The Unfailing God He boasted, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!” He promised, “Though they all fall away, I will never fall away!” He bragged, “Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you!” Yet before the rooster crowed in the wee hours of the following morning, Peter had completely disavowed his relationship with Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times: “I’m telling you I don’t even know him!” To enhance the credibility of his bold-faced lie, he...
Text: Luke 22:35-53 | Listen to Message Falling Apart for You Over the course of history, millions of martyrs have faced horrific executions more stoically, and with more apparent bravery, than the Jesus we find in The Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed. Have you ever stopped to think about that? The physician Luke says Jesus was in agony – a word that indicates extreme psychological and emotional anguish – and his angst was so intense his capillaries burst and he began to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Seriously, what was that about? Our text gives...
Text: Luke 22:24-34 | Listen to Message The Rightside-Up World of Jesus How do you define “greatness”? What makes a person great or important? What, to you, are the primary indicators of a person’s significance? The world defines greatness in terms of power. In various contexts, that power might be exercised as brute force, authority, or influence, but the bottom line is the ability to command and control other people. The world also defines greatness in terms of prestige. Who are the celebrities, the rich and famous, the people whose reputations precede them? What qualities – tangible or intangible – do...
Text: Luke 22:1-23 | Listen to Message A Divine Conspiracy of Grace On the night of “The Last Supper,” two separate conspiracies that pursued diametrically opposite ends converged in the death of Jesus on a cross. Israel’s religious leaders had wanted Jesus dead for a long time. Though he gave ample evidence that he was the true Messiah, they refused to believe. His power, authenticity, and popularity proved to be too much for their pathetically impotent and hypocritical souls. They were jealous – and terrified of losing control over a system that made them important – and that was reason enough...
Text: Luke 21:5-38 | Listen to Message Jesus’ Take on The End Times It’s been said that talking about the end of the world always seems to bring out the crazy in some people (Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary: Luke, Vol. 2, p. 413). You know the types: I call them preppers, preservationists, and prophets. Preppers think they’ve stockpiled enough camouflage, guns/ammo, and MREs to survive a nuclear holocaust, WWIII, or a civil war. In reality, should any of those things break out, they will survive only 4 minutes longer than everyone else. Preservationists are completely freaked out over the...
Text: Luke 20:45-21:4 | Listen to Message The Lie of Religion After being questioned by the religious leaders of the time, Jesus publicly rebukes the scribes. The Scribes were religious scholars who interpreted the Bible, and their interpretations impacted not only the religious teachings of the time, but also the legal system. They were in charge of arbitrating wills, legal contracts, and estate planning. Instead of studying God’s Word and applying it to their own lives, they built their own false religion, which was focused and based on themselves. This religion and all man-made religions are a collection of self-propelled outward...
Text: Matthew 28:16-20 | Listen to Message What Your Life Is Really About Suppose we had no record of Jesus’ last words to his disciples. Matthew 28:18-20 didn’t exist. There was no such thing as “The Great Commission.” The explicit command to “go and make disciples” had never been uttered. Would it make any difference in how we actually live? In how we ought to live? If you discovered that Jesus never told his followers that our life’s mission was to make and mature more followers, how would your life change tomorrow? What would you stop saying and doing? Where would...
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-27; Ephesians 4:4-16 | Listen to Message It’s YOUR Church What draws you to a particular local church? What keeps you there? What would have to happen to cause you to leave? While there are plenty of solid, biblical principles that address these questions, the answers of many modern Christians are surprisingly superficial: The location is close and convenient to me. I like the worship (and by that, I mean the style and instrumentation of the music and the songs themselves). The preaching is practical and relevant without being too up in my business. There are plenty of...
Text: 1 John 3:11-18; 4:7-11, 19-21 | Listen to Message We Love Because We’re Loved The human heart is inherently selfish. As we go through life, “What do I want?” is often our greatest concern. What’s my opinion? What’s my preference? What’s my priority? How do I feel about this? What can this person do for me? What can this situation do for me? What can this church do for me? Me, me, me. It’s all about me. Much of what we call “love” is actually self-love. We claim to love our spouses, our friends, and our faith communities, but how...
Dear Grace City family and friends, As 2017 draws to a close, we have so much to be grateful for! Though numbers don’t even begin to tell the whole story of how God is transforming lives through you, here are a few quick highlights: 1 full-time pastor added to our staff 2 more clean water wells fully funded 3 new missionary ministries supported 5 more baptisms this Fall 10 youth participated in our first summer camp 250+ first-time guests at our Christmas Eve service Even though we’ve accomplished much together over this past year, there’s so much more to...