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 […]
Adventures in Missing Jesus
Text: Matthew 1, Luke 1-2 | Listen to Message Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room Woven into the glad tidings and great joy of The Christmas Story are the mini-narratives of three individuals who were not ready to receive Jesus as King. 1. King Herod missed Jesus because he didn’t want to lose power or control (Matthew 2:1-18). Herod had spent his entire life strategically consolidating power through a series of marriages, murders, building projects, and wars. A practicing Jew, he’d convinced the Roman Senate to recognize him as the undisputed “king of the Jews” – and a client-king of Caesar. […]
Riddle Me This
Text: Luke 20:27-44 | Listen to Message Christian Heretics More and more nationwide research confirms the disturbing data behind the shocking (infuriating?) headline: “Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics” (The Federalist, October 10, 2016). For example, of self-described Evangelical Protestants, . . . Over 1/3 don’t read the Bible even once a week. Only 55% believe the Bible is the Word of God and should generally be interpreted literally. 8% don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God. 38% believe humans evolved rather than being created by a direct act of God as Genesis describes. 28% strongly agree […]
I Pledge Allegiance
Text: Luke 20:9-26 | Listen to Message Checking Our Addiction to Power One of the most stunning claims in the Bible is that the Jewish religious leaders knew Jesus was the Messiah . . . and they killed him anyway. Let that sink in: God’s people had waited more than forty generations for their Savior-King, and when he came their spiritual guides concluded that he was not the kind of Messiah they wanted, and they had him murdered. Why? Because they loved power and control more than they loved God. This is what Jesus shows us in “The Parable of The […]
The Authority of Jesus
Text: Luke 19:45-20:7 | Listen to Message Jesus’ Ultimate Authority Jesus approaches Jerusalem and makes his way directly toward the Temple. The Temple was the center of Jewish worship at the time. It was where the presence of God dwelt, where they had access to God, it was where they made sacrifices to God, and it was where a high priest mediated between God and the people. Instead of finding the Temple a place for reflection, prayer, teaching, and worship, Jesus found the outer courts filled with merchants selling animals for sacrifices and exchanging foreign money for the temple tax. The […]
(un)Expected
Text: Luke 19:28-44 | Listen to Message When Jesus Isn’t What You Wanted When Jesus went up to Jerusalem for what would prove to be his final Passover, the crowds were overcome with ecstasy and exuberant expectation. Their Messiah was coming at long last to deliver them! “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” they shouted. They were right. The King was coming in the name of the Lord. And there would be peace and glory in heaven because of what Jesus was about to do. But […]
Gospel Investments
Text: Luke 19:11-27 | Listen to Message Work for An Eternal ROI In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the familiar “Parable of The Talents.” When we hear the word “talent” we think of a special ability or a natural endowment, but in those days a “talent” was a monetary unit. Jesus’ parable actually connects the two ideas: different servants received different allotments of money from their master, illustrating the fact that we all receive different gifts/abilities from the Lord. In that parable, Jesus’ point seems to be that each person ought to focus on making the most of his/her unique gifts, abilities, […]
For the second time in just 35 days, our hearts are filled with a mix of grief, anger, and fear, because of an unprecedented mass shooting in our nation. On October 1st, a gunman smashed out the windows of his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and opened fire on a country music festival below. 58 people were killed and an additional 546 were injured, making this the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. On November 5th, another gunman walked into the First Baptist Church of rural Sutherland Springs, Texas and shot up the […]
Text: Luke 19:1-10 | Listen to Message Who Sought Whom? The story of Zacchaeus is so familiar it even has its own children’s song! Most of us have heard about the wee little man who climbed up in a sycamore tree to see Jesus. But do we really know the point of the story? In this story about Zacchaeus, Luke wants us to see two things: what happens when we really meet Jesus and how it is that anyone meets him in the first place. On the surface – and initially – it looks like Zacchaeus sought out Jesus. Though he […]
Categories
- 40 Days of Grace (40)
- Current Events (7)
- Holidays (2)
- Message (233)
- News (11)
- Service (51)
Archives
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- May 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- December 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015