Scripture: John 12:20-33 Key Takeaways: + By his death, Jesus opens up heaven to the world. + By his death, Jesus shows us how to truly live. Galatians 6:14 + The world no longer tells me how to live and the world no longer tells me if I’m truly living....
Scripture: Genesis 3:7-24 Key Takeaways: + The Ruin “The effects of sin touch all of creation; no created thing is in principle untouched by the corrosive effects of the fall. Whether we look at societal structures such as the state of the family, or cultural pursuits such as art or technology, or bodily functions such as sexuality or eating, or anything at all within the wide scope of creation, we discover that the good handiwork of God has been drawn into the sphere of human mutiny against God...
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-7 Key Takeaways: + The Serpent - Revelation 12:7–9 - Ephesians 6:12 + The Scheme - Ephesians 6:11 - 2 Corinthians 2:10–11 Questions God’s Word Questions God’s Truthfulness Questions God’s Goodness Appeals to our Desires - 2 Corinthians 11:13–15 + The Sin - 2 Corinthians 11:2–3 - John 8:44...
Scripture: Genesis 2:18-25 Key Takeaways: + Marriage is a good gift from God. + Marriage is designed for companionship and partnership “…not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” – Matthew Henry + Marriage is designed for permanence and exclusivity “So, in the one-flesh union of marriage, all the boundaries between a man and a woman fall awa...
Scripture: Genesis 2:4-17 Key Takeaways: + Work is a good gift from God. “Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meet they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meet for us to leave the service of...
Scripture: Genesis 2:1-3 Key Takeaways: Proverbs 26:15 + SHABBAT = Sabbath Isaiah 40:28 + God created this world and put us in for: - His good pleasure - His glory Exodus 20:8-10 + Sabbath Keeping: Principle vs Rule - As Christ followers are we required to keep the Sabbath as a rule? Mark 2:23-28 Romans 14:1; 5-6 + Summary of work and rest: - Work diligently as unto the Lord. - Rest consistently centered on the Lord. “Our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in You.” – Augustine Matth...
Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31 Key Takeaways: + God made us male and female to bear his image - Matthew 19:3-6 + Our bodies are a good gift from God and tell us who we are “This is hugely important. If the body is merely a vehicle or a costume for the real you, then it is the equivalent of property. But we know this can’t really be the case. However much we might privilege the mind or soul over the body as the ‘real’ us, we know deep down that the body is an essential part of who we truly are. When ...
Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31 Key Takeaways: “The historian Tom Holland, a longtime secular progressive, recently wrote that despite his faith in God fading during his teen years, he now realizes his most fundamental instincts about life only makes sense as an inheritance from the Christian story. Holland’s book, Dominion, is a journey through Western history to narrate how our culture’s moral ideals derive “ultimately from claims made in the Bible: that humans are made in God’s image; that his Son...
Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31 Key Takeaways: + Every human being possesses dignity as an image bearer of God “But human rights are just like Heaven, and, like God, it’s just a fictional story that we’ve invented and spread around. It may be a very nice story. It may be a very attractive story. We want to believe it, but it’s just a story. It’s not a reality. It is not a biological reality. Just as jellyfish and woodpeckers and ostriches have no rights, homo sapiens have no rights, also. Take a huma...
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:3 Key Takeaways: “Today as I read Genesis 1–2 my thoughts go to high school biology and physics. How does the biblical depiction of creation relate to the big bang theory and evolution? No doubt, Genesis 1–2 has bearing on our evaluation of these modern scientific accounts of cosmic and human origins. But a moment’s thought will jar us into remembering that this comparison would not have occurred to ancient authors and readers. It is certain that the biblical account of ...
Scripture: Genesis 1:1 Key Takeaways: Psalm 33:6 Nehemiah 9:6 Revelation 4:11 + God Exists as the Eternal and Transcendent God Aseity Hebrews 11:6 + God Exists as the Good and Personal God “There is a philosophical fissure between fundamental impersonalism or fundamental personalism. First of all, there is the difficulty of deriving ethical values from a nonpersonal source. If the universe is most fundamentally matter, time, and chance, then it becomes very hard to argue that one combination of ...
Scripture: Psalm 23 Key Takeaways: + A Shepherd leads by provision, presence and protection Matthew 16:31-22 + We worship the Lord because He is a divine provider + We worship the Lord because of His divine presence “Dear Jesus, how foolish of me to have called for human help when You are right here.” – Corrie Ten Boom, Hiding Place + We worship the Lord because of His divine protection + We are worshipping when we FOLLOW the Lord + LORD (all caps) = YHWH; Lord (lower case) = Adonai John 10:10-1...
Scripture: Psalm 133 Key Takeaways: + God is pleased when His people dwell in unity John 17:20-23 + Renewal happens when God’s people dwell in unity Romans 12:16 Romans 13:8 Romans 14:3 Romans 15:7 Romans 15:14 Romans 16:16 1 Corinthians 16:20 2 Corinthians 13:12 1 Peter 5:14 + Jesus is seen when God’s people dwell in unity...
Scripture: Psalm 80 Key Takeaways: + The Need for Renewal – Loss of God’s presence – Loss of Joy Psalm 32:3-4 Psalm 31:9-10 – Loss of Spiritual Power + The Prayer for Renewal Acts 3:19-20 Isaiah 30:18...
Scripture: Luke 19:1-10 Key Takeaways: + Zacchaeus was Hungry Luke 19:2 Luke 19:7 “But while nearly everyone would agree that Hitler has earned a spot in hell, the Bible says that Billy Graham has earned a spot in hell, too.” – Brady Tarr Ephesians 2:1–5 Luke 19:3 Jeremiah 29:13 + Zacchaeus was Humble Luke 19:4 + Jesus sees us Luke 19:5 + Jesus knows us Luke 19:5 Romans 10:14 + Jesus saves us Luke 19:9–10 + Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see, Jesus climbed a tree to save. Luke 19:10...
Scripture: Titus 2:11-14 Key Takeaways: + A Purchased People Mark 10:45 + A Prized People Image of Micky Mantle card $13m 1 Peter 1:18–19 + A Purified People “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” – Mark Twain 1 John 1:7 Hebrews 10:22 + A Passionate People...
Scripture: Titus 2:11-14 Key Takeaways: + Isaiah 9:6-7 + Matthew 1:1 + Matthew 1: 17 + Tangible Hope + Visible Glory + Unimaginable Awe “We don’t hope that we will see Katy again. We have the hope that we KNOW we WILL see Katy again.” – Holly Rost + Hebrews 9:27 + Matthew 24:36-42 “Joy to the world the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing.”...
Scripture: Titus 2:11-14 Key Takeaways: + Christmas is the inbreaking of the age to come into this present age. + Mark 10:29–30 · Satanic age · Sinful age · Secular age · Sensual age · Selfish age + 2 Timothy 3:1–4 · Secular age + 2 Timothy 4:10 + Through Jesus, God brings us into the age to come and brings the age to come into us. + Galatians 1:3–5 + Romans 12:1–2 + God’s saving grace in Jesus doesn’t just forgive sin, it trains and transforms the forgiven sinner. + The Beauty of Jesus. + The P...
Scripture: Titus 2:11-14 Key Takeaways: + Christmas is the Incarnation of the Son of God + John 1:1-2 + John 1:14 "...the supreme mystery with which the gospel confronts us...lies not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter Sunday message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of Incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man - that the second person of the Godhead...took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Naz...
Scripture: John 6:26-40 Key Takeaways: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We ar...
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:23-27 Key Takeaways: “It was in 1980, that the legendary boxing trainer Cus D’amato discovered the young juvenile delinquent, Mike Tyson. 6 years later as a 20 year old kid, Tyson would destroy Trevor Berbick in 6 minutes to take the crown to initiate the start of his heavyweight reign. For those 6 years, Mike Tyson's daily workout involved getting up at 4am for a 5-mile jog, sparring for 3 hours, doing 2000 sit-ups, 500 pushups, 500 dips, 500 shrugs and about 30 minut...
Scripture: John 14:25-31 Key Takeaways: John 16:33 [Got Milk Slides] + Not the Peace the World Gives Control Circumstances + His peace + The only way you can have the peace of God is to be at peace with God Romans 5:1 John 16:33 Refuse to fear Refuse counterfeit saviors Seek the Felt Experience of the Holy Spirit...
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6 Key Takeaways: + God cares more about The Church than this nation, so order your loves. Acts 17:26 (CSB) + Order our loves according to spiritual principles and spatial proximity. + Our Theology is our relational Glue, so don’t seek unity around anything else. Graphic of Three Circles Graphic of Three Circles expanded. + The Character we display matters more than the vote we cast, so be like Jesus. + Jesus is Lord, so don’t freak out whatever happens Tuesday....
Scripture: Galatians 5:13-26 Key Takeaways: + Holy Intention 1 Peter 1:15–16 (ESV) Ephesians 1:4 (ESV) 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ESV) 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (ESV) 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) “Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God.” – J.I. Packer, Keeping in Step with the Spirit. “Lord, make me as holy as it is possible for a saved sinner to be.” – Robert Murray McCheyne + Holy Conflict + Holy Habits - Treat your...
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:1-13 Key Takeaways: + The Essence of Idolatry Romans 1:22-25 + The Shock of Idolatry Sin against Love Sin against Logic + The Cost of Idolatry Psalm 16:11 + The Cure for Idolatry...
Scripture: Romans 16:25-27 Key Takeaways: “This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and is truly the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. We can never read it or ponder over it too much; for the more we deal with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.” Martin Luther. + Live for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians ...
Scripture: Romans 16:17-23 Key Takeaways: + Unity in the church is worth defending Romans 16:17 + Obedience strengthens our Unity Romans 16:19 + Love for the Church and its mission strengthens our unity Romans 16:3-15 Acts 17:5-9 Acts 20:4 + Gospel unity results in victory Romans 16:20 Genesis 3:15 Ephesians 6:12-15...
Scripture: Romans 16:1-16 Key Takeaways: + The Church was an intimate family in Jesus. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 (ESV) + The Church included and dignified women. “Amidst contemporary denunciations of Christianity as patriarchal and sexist, it is easily forgotten that the early church was especially attractive to women… Christianity was unusually appealing because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did the women in the Greco-Roman world at large.” – Rodney Stark Philippian...
Key Takeaways: + Prayer is the Direct Communication with God. + Prayer Shapes Outcomes. Psalm 34:6 (ESV) “In essence, prayer is rebellion – rebellion against the status quo, the state of the world in its sin and fallenness. It is the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is completely abnormal. It is the rejection of every agenda, every scheme, every opinion that clashes with the norms that God originally established.” – David Wells. 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2 (CSB) Acts 12:1–5 (CSB) ...
Scripture: Romans 15:14–29 Key Takeaways: 1 Timothy 1:12–17 (CSB) + Ministry to the Church + Ministry to the Needy 1 Corinthians 16:1–2 (CSB) 2 Corinthians 8:9 (CSB) + Ministry to the Unreached + The Unreached will be reached Revelation 7:9–12 (CSB) + It will take missionaries with ambition who are willing to go 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 (CSB) + It will take the preaching of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. + It will happen through Church Planting + It will happen through sacrificial Chr...
