1 John 1:5-2:2 — God is Light. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world and the Light of life. In Christ, we are children of the Light. Therefore, we must walk in the Light and live as children of the Light. We are to be the light of the world that reflects God’s light into the world. Christ, who is the Light that is always with us, enables us to walk in the light and live as light.
Read MoreLuke 2:22-35 — Are we filled with joy, thanksgiving, excitement, and God-fearing love because of Jesus’ first coming? Are we filled with God-fearing love, joyful anticipation, and excited expectation about Jesus’ 2nd coming? We should be because we have seen the Lord’s salvation. We have seen Jesus, the Lord’s Christ. We have the blessed assurance of God’s promise that He will return and we will see Him face to face. In the meantime, while we await his return in faith, hope, and love, we should live out the kingdom life with God-fearing love in word and action so that He will find us ready and busy at his work.
This is part of our Advent series for 2023, The Characters of Christmas.
Read MoreMatthew 1:18-25; 2:13-14, 19-21 — As God’s people, we should live in the center of God’s will, obeying our Lord. This requires that we align our lives to God’s plan, His mission, and kingdom purpose. This may involve sacrifice, giving up our own ideals and plans, as well as persecution by the world for the sake of our Lord.
This is part of our Advent series for 2023, The Characters of Christmas.
Read MoreLuke 1:5-25, 57-80 — Zechariah believed and hoped … and yet wondered, doubted. God works through us despite our doubts, fears, and questions; despite what we believe about ourselves, the situation, or the problem at hand. No matter how long we wait, no matter how impossible it seems we must never give up faith and hope because God is faithful, in control, fulfilling his promises, and accomplishing his kingdom purpose.
This begins our Advent series for 2023, The Characters of Christmas.
Read MoreJohn 13:34-35; 14:15-27; 17:6-26; 1 John 4:7-21; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Gal 3:26-29; Eph 4:1-6 — Church is not something we go to. Church is something we are. In Christ, being Christ-centered, we are the Body of Christ; we are community-concerned. As the one Body with many members we are the image, the likeness, of the Holy Trinity. We are an expression of the holy love, the fellowships and the unity of the Trinity. We represent, live out, and proclaim the self-expending, self-sharing, other-regarding, other-affirming, community-forming love of the triune God so that the world will believe that God so loved the world that He gave himself to save the world.
This concludes our series, Christ-Centered, Community-Concerned, exploring our church’s mission-vision statement in light of the book of Colossians. What does this mean and what does it look like in our personal daily lives and in our church life and ministries? How does this shape our thoughts, minds, attitudes, words, and actions? Credit is given to the following sources that informed and were used in this series: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart & The Spirit of the Disciplines.
Read More(Our apologies for the poor sound quality of this sermon due to technical problems we experienced.)
Colossians 3:12-17 — We are God’s chosen, holy, and dearly loved people. As such we must put on the clothes of his holy people. These are the community-concerned, pro-community practices; the practices that result from the virtues of our new selves in Jesus Christ. We practice these in and for the community. To put on and practice these virtues we must let the peace of Christ rule our hearts and His Word dwell richly in and among us. This produces thanksgiving and worship as we offer all of our lives, everything we do, as a living sacrifice to God.
This is part of our series, Christ-Centered, Community-Concerned, exploring our church’s mission-vision statement in light of the book of Colossians. What does this mean and what does it look like in our personal daily lives and in our church life and ministries? How does this shape our thoughts, minds, attitudes, words, and actions? Credit is given to the following sources that informed and were used in this series: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart & The Spirit of the Disciplines. The following commentaries served as important sources for this sermon: N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters; and R. Kent Hughes, Colossians & Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ.
Read MoreColossians 3:5-11 — We must put to death sinful sexuality and sensuality, evil and sinful attitudes and speech, and deception (lies). We must do so because we are new creations, living in new relationships in new communities of God’s people. Here, in the new self and in the new community, all traditional and worldly human distinctions are abolished. They do not matter anymore because Christ is all and in all. He is the Lord of all. He is present and active in everyone giving new life to us and our community. We are being transformed into Christ’s image, who is the full image of God, and so God’s image is restored in us.
This is part of our series, Christ-Centered, Community-Concerned, exploring our church’s mission-vision statement in light of the book of Colossians. What does this mean and what does it look like in our personal daily lives and in our church life and ministries? How does this shape our thoughts, minds, attitudes, words, and actions? Credit is given to the following sources that informed and were used in this series: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart & The Spirit of the Disciplines. The following commentaries served as important sources for this sermon: N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters; and R. Kent Hughes, Colossians & Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ.
Read MoreMt 4:17-25; 9:9-13,35-10:8; Mt 28:18-20; Lk 7:33-35; 1 Peter 2:11-12 — To be Christ-centered is to be Community-concerned. As Jesus’ apprentices we are with Him, become like Him, and do what He did. Jesus sends us to continue his kingdom mission and work. We proclaim the gospel of God’s kingdom in word and deed. We are the living community of God’s people in this world who know God and make God known. We are the Body of Christ, His hands and feet doing his work. We are the children of the light and through us, the true Light of the world shines his love into the world.
This is part of our series, Christ-Centered, Community-Concerned, exploring our church’s mission-vision statement in light of the book of Colossians. What does this mean and what does it look like in our personal daily lives and in our church life and ministries? How does this shape our thoughts, minds, attitudes, words, and actions? Credit is given to the following sources that informed and were used in this series: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart & The Spirit of the Disciplines. From here on credit is also given to the following: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren; Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted by Gretchen Ronnevik & Elyse Fitzpatrick; The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Also, Comer’s podcasts on Practicing the Way and the resources from his website, https://www.practicingtheway.org.
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