Last week Brian led us through chapter 9 where we learned that rich generosity leads to rich reward. Today, Paul shifts gears (without using the clutch) and jams the conversation into an entirely different direction.
This week as we step into Chapter 9 Paul continues to encourage them in this grace of giving and offers them more coaching on being as generous as possible. Today, in order to encourage them to excel in the grace of giving we're going to hear Paul teach them that while rich grace stimulates rich generosity...in turn, rich generosity leads rich reward.
Today we step into chapter 8 of 2nd Corinthians. Having wrapped up his prolonged explanation and defense of the method and message of his ministry, Paul steps into a brand new topic, the topic of generosity. The topic comes up because Paul has been letting the churches he's been engaged with in Greece and Macedonia know about a severe famine that is occurring back in the area of Jerusalem. In the process of informing these churches about the distressed situation for the believers involved in thi...
Regardless of which side of the equation you are on, most of us have an internal adverse reaction to the topic of correction because somewhere in our lives we've experienced it when it has either not been delivered well, or it has not been responded to well. Today, our Designer Living series takes us right into the middle of this topic and thankfully, we gain from Paul and from the Corinthian believers some important tips for delivering and responding to correction in a responsible and godly way...
Today's passage comes from Paul to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 6, as a result of them continuing to participate in some of the heinous things the corrupt culture around them were engaging in.
Paul is once again explaining and defending his life and ministry among the Corinthians. And he begins by pointing out that his authenticity and validity as a genuine servant of God is evident by how he has conducted himself in the good times and in the bad times. In other words, he's saying, "You can tell I'm the real deal by how I have conducted myself in the great times and in the rotten times. He has pressed on for Christ no matter what! This is our designer living principle today: Christian...
This is actually why Easter is so special. Easter celebrates the opportunity to hit the ultimate RESTART button in life! And since no one is perfect, the reality is every one of us could benefit from a second chance. Even if you feel your life is going pretty well right now, the reality is each of us needs to hit the restart button in our relationships with our creator at some point in our lives.
In order to take heart in hardship, it's helpful to remember God is doing this renewing inside each and every Christ follower, each and every day, as we open ourselves up to him and invite him to have his way in us. Paul then goes on to say in verse 17 that to take heart in hardship we have to remember that no matter how intense or long lasting our present hardships are, the intensity and duration of the glories of heaven completely and totally outdo them. In verse 17 Paul repeats the word we ge...
Today, the Apostle Paul continues in his train of though that we have been examining over the past few weeks and we learn that AS GOD IS LIVING IN US AND TRANSFORMING/HEALING US WE ARE DESIGNED TO NEVER LOSE HEART FOR giving ourselves away IN JESUS NAME. Understanding that we are designed to serve others was a critical idea for Corinthians, as it is for us, because the Greeks were "prone to see themselves as individuals, economically and religiously self-sufficient, and only minimally interdepen...
As transformation has started to take place, let us allow that transformation to affect all aspects of our lives so we can be the salt and the light Jesus Christ has called us to be. That we would take seriously the ministry God has given us.
The truths I want to encourage you with today are declared and affirmed by Paul as he writes in 2 Corinthians 3. Now, as I mentioned last week, at the end of Chapter 2 Paul launches into a kind of defense of his ministry as an Apostle. Because of the criticisms he has been receiving from some in the church, he feels it is necessary to defend him self and help them understand his message and his methods more accurately. Our Designer Living message for today emerges out of his line of reasoning an...
Today we are taking another step in our series called DESIGNER LIVING. And according to our section in 2 Corinthians today, Paul explains that Christians are designed to function like diffusers-radiating and emanating the fragrance of Christ as we walk through life. Let's look at the opening thoughts of 2 Cor. 2:14a
Today we are coming out of Paul response to that group of critics from within the Corinthian church to Paul addressing one individual from within the church that has greatly offended Paul. In addressing this individual he is shepherding the church on how to appropriately deal with him the way in which Christ calls us to. What I hope we will discover this morning is that While God has designed us to be a comfort, to be dependable. Christ has also designed us to be forgivers because repentance lay...
I bet we have all disappointed someone at some point. I bet we all haven't lived up to the expectations others have placed on us, and as a result we left them stranded in disappointment. Maybe that person was our spouse, our brother, our sister, our kids, co-worker or worse yet our boss. I think we can relate to the Seattle Seahawks... at some point all of us had let someone down whether we meant to or not. I know that even personally, as a pastor people expect things about you and from you... a...
Over the next several weeks we're going to be spending our sermon time in the second of Paul's letters to the Corinthians. And from the passages that contain Paul's defense of his life and methods, as well as the passages that attempt to correct the unhealthy and unhelpful hurts and hang-ups of the Corinthians I believe we can find a number of applications for our lives that will serve to help us become the people God designed us to be. That's why I'm calling this series Designer Living: Becomin...
Today in our final session of this series I want us to look at an illustration the Apostle Paul uses to help us grab on to, and lock in on everything we have been talking about in this series. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Leading up to this illustration he uses in these verses, Paul has basically been explaining to the Corinthian believers how he unleashes his potential as a Christian and as an Apostle so that they understand how to do the same in their lives. So, this is a perfe...
Welcome to week 3 of our series, "Unleashing the Future." This series is about the choices we make now; that will enable us to experience our full redemptive potential in the future. The principles we're talking about apply to your individual choices as well as our choices as a church. And what I want you to see today is that these principles are not new or born out of the latest research. They are tried and true and practiced by God's people in the past in order to unleash their future. Turn i...
This week I want to talk about a different dimension of this. Again the principles we're going to talk about today apply to our personal lives as well as our life together as a church. In order for your future as an individual or our future as a church to be unleashed and for you & for our church to realize our full potential we have to pay attention to how we're managing our freedom. The freedom I'm talking about is related to the freedom we enjoy in our great country we live in, but more s...
There's something fresh about a New Year. Our hope for better days is at it's brightest. We tend to reflect a bit about the past year, and imagine or dream about the New Year coming. It's a chance to hit the "restart" button. It's a chance to take another run at something. It's a chance to make a fresh resolve to stay a course or improve course a bit. Today I am beginning a new series of messages that I'm calling Unleashing The Future! For our church to be unleashed to experience her full potent...
We live in some dark, cold and bitter days. We turn on the news and see the atrocities happening in our world. But often the atrocities in our own lives weigh us down even more. What at encouragement we can receive from the author of Hebrews as he reminds us in Chapter 12. "we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set bef...
The significance of Christmas that we've been focusing on all month long here at Church of the Foothills is HOPE. Hope is a super familiar idea, but it's not one we normally think about all that deeply. In fact, we use the word hope in all sorts of everyday conversation. "I hope I get something really cool for Christmas." "I hope I make my numbers at work today." "I hope what I want is on sale." I hope I see my boss today." "I hope I don't see my boss today." "I hope I see my employee today." Ho...
In the midst of all her pain and struggle, the ultimate Hope of The World is born at Christmas. This is what we have been talking about over the last couple of weeks in our series, Christmas: Winter's Hope. We've been talking about the "winters" of our personal lives where we face cold challenges, shorter days of opportunity and resources to meet those challenges, and dark nights of the soul when we realize our life hasn't worked out quite like we imagined it would.
Like the season of winter, some winters are harder than others, and some last longer than others. The challenging, "winter seasons" of our lives can generate discouragement and despair, fear and anxiety or just plain emptiness. Some stretch us to the breaking point emotionally and spiritually. Directly into the "winters" of our lives, hope is born. Directly into the "winters" of our hearts, God delivers life-changing hope. Yes, life is full of challenges nevertheless, hope cries out loud, and cl...
The rush and stress of the Christmas season can feel like a strong arm in the back shoving us along through extra events, shopping, office parties, and family gatherings. All the well-intentioned "whobilation" can put us at risk of missing the soul refreshing, faith-deepening connection, worship and appreciation of the One born at Christmas. So, my heart is always that these Christmas messages, will keep us securely tethered to the real meaning of Christmas. If you are newer to God or church, my...
I can't believe we're at the end of the series I'm calling Jesus, my Everything. The truth is, friends, without Him I've got nothing. I can't save myself. I can make myself holy. I don't have the power to restore my brokenness, whether spiritual, physical or mental. But with Him I am saved, I am sanctified & I am healed. Only Jesus is our Savior, Sanctifier and Healer. Today I want to talk with you about what I consider to be the most exciting of these four messages: Jesus, my Coming King....
How many of you like to go to Costco and enjoy the little samples that they hand out? My youngest son, Noah, loves the samples. That kid will ask to participate in a three-hour errand run if he knows that Costco is one of the stops. Stores that do the little tastes are geniuses, aren't they? They give you a little bite and then tell you where the whole product or meal can be purchased. I know some people (who shall remain nameless) who will go to Costco and troll around from sample to sample, ti...
I have been part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance from that first Sunday at church with my buddy right up to now. It's been a no-brainer for me because the Alliance is anchored in Jesus and an unswerving belief that everything we need is found in the provision of Christ. A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, used the phrase "Fourfold Gospel" to describe who Christ must be in the life of every believer if we are to experience the fullness of life Jesus wants ...
Welcome to the conclusion of our series Angels and Demons. In our last session together we affirmed that God and his holy angels have an enemy. He is the devil and he has some number of angels with him who also rebelled against God's authority. The devil and his angels are created beings so they are always and forever under the authority of the Creator. In their supreme pride and arrogance, the devil and his angels resent God and hate all who believe in him or might believe in him. They have one...
Welcome to week 4 of our series Angels and Demons. Today we begin our exploration of the dark side of the angel world-the devil and his angels. Since we know from the Bible that God created absolutely everything we can see and can't see, and we know that it was all very good, we deduce that Satan, who fell sometime between the end of creation (when all was pronounced good) and the temptation of Adam and Eve, is a created angel.
In the opening 2 sessions of our series we examined the types of angels we read about in the Bible and we surveyed the kinds of things they do in the heavenly realms. This week I want us to take a look at what angels can do in our lives. When we survey the Bible we learn that God uses angels in our earthly experience of life in a number of ways. For example...
