Text: The Psalms of Ascent | Listen to Message Fighting for Hope in the Midst of Despair   We live in a broken and grief-filled world. Even as I sat down to write this week’s message, the news broke that 14 people had been killed by gunfire at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California. And so it goes, day after day, week after week, month after month. We continually experience pain that causes us to ask, “Where is God? And why isn’t He doing something to stop this madness?” We want to believe that someday things will be different,...

Text: The Psalms of Ascent | Listen to Message Longing for Peace in The Midst of Conflict   The desire for peace is one of the most universal longings of the human heart. Most of us want goodwill instead of violence, tranquility rather than turmoil. But the peace and quiet we seek can prove to be quite elusive in the real world, which is filled with conflict on a global, local, and personal scale. Furthermore, even if we could escape the agitations that press in from the outside, we would still find ourselves agitated from within. When it comes to peace,...

Text: Acts 14:21-28 | Listen to Message How to build a strong, healthy spiritual life   If you want to build a stronger, healthier physical body, you’re going to need more than just a workout routine! You’re going to need several things that work together synergistically to produce real strength and endurance. Let’s look at 6 of them and consider how each has a parallel to spiritual growth and strength. 1. Nutrition. You’ve got to fuel your body with lots of good calories, protein, vitamins, and water. In the same way, you’ve got fuel your heart and soul with the...

Text: Acts 14:1-20 | Listen to Message Sharing the Gospel with empathy   A perfectly-cut diamond is a thing of unparalleled glory. Each facet creates a different angle for light to enter, bounce around, and then radiate outward with maximum brilliance and beauty. The Gospel is like that. Instead of giving us one facet of good news, the Bible gives us dozens and dozens of facets. Instead of merely saying, “Trust Jesus and you’ll go to heaven when you die,” the Bible says Jesus is freedom, forgiveness, righteousness, cleansing, healing, hope, rescue, restoration, adoption, satisfaction, joy, eternal life – and...

Text: Romans 12:1-2 In his book Step By Step, author James Petty asserts, “until the industrialized age, most Christian writings on guidance emphasized guidance to God, not guidance from God.” Our attention has shifted from relationship with our Creator to navigation within His Creation. We’ve lost our path, but Romans 12:1-2 can help us regain our bearings. In this passage, Paul clarifies the means by which we which we discern God’s path – the renewed mind. The renewed mind serves as the touchstone by which we test the options presented us. We don’t look to a wet fleece or a...

Text: Acts 13:13-52 | Listen to Message The Heart of the Christian Gospel   Ask a dozen people on the street what they think the essential message of Christianity is, and you’ll probably get a dozen different answers. Some think Christianity is little more than advice for living a religious life. Others think Christianity teaches that God is mad at everyone or, conversely, that God loves everyone and just wants everyone to be happy, regardless of who/what they believe. Still others think you’re just supposed to ask Jesus into your heart – whatever that means – and then good things...

Text: Acts 13:1-12 | Listen to Message Making a straight, sensible path to Jesus   The first Christian missionaries impacted the world by taking the gospel to influential cities. Salamis was the cultural and commercial center of Cyprus, and Paphos was the capital. Together, these two cities shaped the religion, culture, politics, and economics of the entire island. In order to impact our generation for Christ, we, too, must make a gospel impact on the cities. We must go to the people and places that are forging culture, and we must make a Jesus-shaped impression there. When Christians avoid these...

Text: Acts 12:1-25 | Listen to Message Faith in deliverance or in death   The story of Peter’s miraculous 11th-hour rescue from a Roman prison cell is a familiar one. Christian children all over the world have heard how the church prayed and the angel came, how chains fell off and doors opened automatically as guards slept. And subtly, if not intentionally, the moral of the story that’s been reinforced is something like, “If you pray and trust God, He’ll deliver you.” Not so fast. In the verses immediately preceding Peter’s dramatic rescue, we learn that another apostle, James, has...

Text: Acts 11:19-30; 13:1-3 | Listen to Message What does it mean to be a Christian?   Christians are people who believe in and follow Jesus Christ. Therefore, those who call themselves “Christians” should probably think and act and talk a lot like Jesus. So here are a couple questions worth pondering: 1. If others based their understanding of Jesus Christ entirely on your actions and attitudes, what would they think Jesus was like? 2. If someone took you to court and charged you with being a Christian, what factual evidence would they be able to present to convict you?...

Text: Acts 10:1—11:18 | Listen to Message The death of racism in the life of Jesus   The Early Church was troubled by deep racial divides between Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were “God’s chosen people,” who had received many privileges that the Gentiles had not (including the Law, the covenant promises of God, the Temple, and even the bloodline of the Messiah). Many Jews felt elitist about these privileges and became full-blown racists. They looked down on the Gentiles and would have nothing to do with the “unclean dogs.” So the Early (Jewish) Church wrongly concluded that a Gentile could...