Text: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 | Listen to Message Christians give, on average, 2-3% of their income to charity (their local church + all other missional and charitable causes combined). Whatever you believe about dollars and percentages, commands vs. principles, and grace vs. law, I hope you agree that this tepid, tightfisted level of giving is more indicative of “me-first” consumers than it is a reflection of the generosity and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Under the Old Testament Law, Jews were commanded to give tithes to the Lord, His work, and His people. Note that word “tithes.” It […]
Grace Grows Best in Winter
Text: Nehemiah 9-10 | Listen to Message When the grace of God and the righteousness of God are in tension with one another, what wins? Have you ever thought about that? If God is righteous as the Bible says, then there are justly-deserved consequences to disobeying His law. There have to be. He can’t just pass over our sins or sweep them under the rug. He can’t “just forgive.” If God is only merciful all the time, He is not righteous. In fact, He’s not even good – not if He breaks His own standards of right and wrong. So we […]
The Joy of The Lord
Text: Nehemiah 7-8 | Listen to Message How can you be safe when the storms of life come suddenly and relentlessly? How can you withstand the attacks of the Evil One? How can you be bold and confident in the midst of a culture that ridicules your core convictions? How can you keep going when you feel overwhelmed and exhausted by life events? Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” Now, notice this verse isn’t talking about your joy in the Lord; it’s talking about the Lord’s joy. Your joy is a fickle thing, an erratic thing, […]
The Fear That Drives Out Fear
Text: Nehemiah 3-6 | Listen to Message The fear of failure. The fear of losing control. The fear of missing out. The fear of rejection. The fear of shame. The fear of man. The fear of pain. The fear of insignificance. The fear of death. You get the point: We walk through life facing all kinds of self-protective and self-promoting fears on a daily basis. If we’re not careful, we won’t just have our fears, our fears will have us. We’ll be controlled and enslaved by the growing list of things we want to prevent or avoid. The Bible’s solution to […]
7 Sparks of Spiritual Renewal
Text: Nehemiah 1-2 | Listen to Message We say we want to see God move in our generation like He has in times past, bringing the fresh wind and fresh fire of spiritual renewal to our churches and cities, but how often do we live as if these are anything other than just words? More and more research is warning us that the Christian Church in America is rapidly dwindling – and much of that research suggests it’s because complacent, convenience-driven, consumer “Christians” are discovering they’re ultimately happier when they spend their time, their energy, and their money elsewhere. But something […]
Text: Ezra 9:1-10:3 | Listen to Message 8 Traits of Genuine Repentance In Part I, which you can read here, we shared “10 Traits of Counterfeit Repentance.” Now – for the positive side – here are 8 traits of what genuine, Gospel-motivated, Gospel-celebrating repentance looks like: 1. Name your specific sin. It’s a lot easier for most of us to say “I’m sorry” than to say “I’m sorry that I lied about you” or “I’m sorry that I hurt you with my sarcasm.” But a generic, one-size-fits-all apology is cowardly and self-righteous. Humble yourself and confess exactly what you said or […]
Text: Ezra 9:1-10:3 | Listen to Message 10 Traits of Counterfeit Repentance Repentance is one of the keystone *behaviors of the Christian faith, and yet so often Christians respond to their sin with anything but godly repentance. See how many of these signs of counterfeit repentance you recognize in your own life. 1. Deny your sin. You readily protest you didn’t say what you said, you didn’t do what you did, you didn’t forget what you forgot. You adjust the record with outright lies. 2. Minimize your sin. You make light of your sin and act like it’s no big deal. […]
Text: Jeremiah 29:1-7; 1 Peter 2:11-12 | Listen to Message By Easter 2019, Grace City will be a thriving, Gospel-driven Church that embodies and shares the heart of Christ in the heart of downtown Denver. Between now and then, we will continue to worship, grow, and serve as a Church – while being strategic and intentional about forming a committed, missional core group to re-plant Grace City in the new “home” where God has led us. Why? Downtown Denver is undergoing a mass-scale metamorphosis right now. Physically, construction cranes dominate the skyline everywhere you turn. Philosophically, there’s been a shift in […]
Prospering in The Word
Text: Esther 5-6 | Listen to Message Sometimes obeying God just doesn’t seem to pay off. You know the feeling, right? You decide to take your faith seriously, so you read your Bible, go to church, and try to live an obedient life . . . and things go worse for you than before! Worse yet, you look around at all the people who couldn’t care less about obeying God, and most of them seem better off than you! This is where God’s people find themselves in Ezra 5 and 6. They’ve responded to the call of the prophets Haggai and […]
Dealing with Discouragement
Text: Ezra 4:1-23 | Listen to Message Fighting for Hope I don’t mean to be a downer, but if you’re not discouraged about something right now, you’re probably in the minority. Discouragement is that common. And it requires no definition or explanation – you know it when you feel it. Discouragement is also self-perpetuating in that it typically drives us to actions (and inactions) that make our situation worse, rather than better. All too often, discouragement death spirals into full-blown depression and despair. As C.S. Lewis implies in The Screwtape Letters, discouragement is a particularly effective weapon of our adversary, the […]
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