Faith (June 2023) - Audio
Faith: trusting in what you can't see because of what you can see.
Jun 04, 2023•12 min
Generations Community Church
Generations is all about helping individuals and families become followers of Jesus Christ. We want to see people live the way Jesus lived, love the way Jesus loved and leave behind what Jesus left behind. We're located in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and w
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Episodes
Sent, Rejected, and Acceptecd - Audio
Have you ever noticed that you NEVER see a Mormon missionary come to your front door ALONE? They’ve always got a partner. They’re always “on mission” with someone else or with a team. That's not by accident. Isolated and alone, we tend to be overly critical (of ourselves and others), overly discouraged (by the results of our efforts) and overly prone to giving up or walking away. Jesus KNOWS we have this tendency (when we are alone) to be overly critical, overly discouraged, and overly prone to ...
May 28, 2023•29 min
The Temptation to Perform, Impress, and Possess - Audio
In 2009, Tim Keller told his congregation in New York City, “We want to feel beautiful. We want to feel loved. We want to feel significant. And that’s why we’re working so hard.” And those people “had lived their whole lives with parents, music teachers, coaches, professors, and bosses telling them to do better, be better, try harder.” In America (like ancient Rome), we applaud and celebrate the achievers, the rich, and the beautiful. Is it any wonder so many people labor to obtain: • Enough suc...
May 21, 2023•28 min
From Not Enough to Enough - Audio
On any given day, we can feel happy, sad, angry, betrayed, frustrated, delighted, excited, scared, or bored. More often than not, these feelings are not simply random occurrences. They are frequently connected to our thoughts, to what we are thinking on a regular basis. A Jesus-based, Jesus-infused identity will require us to CONFESS (thoughts/beliefs which are untrue) and BELIEVE (that Jesus is enough).
May 15, 2023•23 min
Safe, Wanted, Accepted, and Seen - Audio
We've all known people like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent who have been marked with a curse or marked with a blessing. And in our community, their stories have been shared in two places: (1) In our county jail – one STORY after ANOTHER - of men addicted to drugs, because they are trying to mask the pain of their upbringing and lack, and (2) At Asbury’s outpouring – one STORY after ANOTHER – of men and women who, often in spite of or instead of – are now redeemed, forgiven, beloved, treasured, and s...
Apr 30, 2023•24 min
Unsafe, Unwanted, and Unaccepted - Audio
A part of our identity is forged in our childhood - from what we receive (or don't receive) from our parents. But it shouldn't surprise us when we receive a curse from our parents. Why? Humanity's first parents, Adam and Eve, decided that they couldn’t trust God, they had to figure things out for themselves, they had to determine what’s right and wrong, and they wanted to be in charge – so they took matters into their own hands. And they spent the rest of their lives laboring under a curse. And ...
Apr 23, 2023•29 min
The Sirens of Identity - Audio
Unlike traditional cultures, we tell people in America to find certain dreams, feelings, or intuitions they have (on the inside) and assert them, express them, follow them, and MAKE them HAPPEN! Don’t let anyone (else) tell you what to do (or how to live your life)! Especially your parents. But this way of identity formation nearly always leads to comparison, anxiety, and condemnation. In this message, Max Vanderpool identifies the PRIMARY way we go about identity formation in American and why i...
Apr 16, 2023•27 min
Reborn - Audio
Adults and students alike are plagued with social media feeds of everyone else's best moments and highlights, perfectly cut and curtailed to LOOK amazing. As you scroll through, you wonder why YOU have to struggle so much when it seems like everyone else is flying. But this way of living is fragile and exhausting...and it's NOT the Gospel way. In this message, Max Vanderpool, explores what it means to be BORN AGAIN and how it's more than just going to heaven when you die.
Apr 09, 2023•25 min
An Armored Life Together - Audio
For the past several decades, pastors, church leaders, and Christian conferences have told folks to get up early in the morning. Read your Bible (alone). Pray (alone). Journal and reflect on your life, your life issues, and where God might be at work in your life and the world around you (alone). So when Americans READ or HEAR Ephesians 6 and the Apostle Paul's admonition to put on the armor of God, they think, "Oh, yeah, I should do that. I should have done that this morning...when I was alone....
Mar 26, 2023•27 min
Unity, Not Uniformity - Audio
American Protestants divide over all kinds of issues: what type of music to use, what type of programming to employ, whether women can be pastors, and whether speaking in tongues is a thing or a thing that's over. The trouble is we value being right MORE than we value being together. And if Jesus and the Apostle Paul are to be believed, God cares more about unity than about being right.
Mar 19, 2023•29 min
Where the Love Is - Audio
On the one hand, the Church (with a capital "C") has sinned and erred and hurt and (at many different times) born a bad witness for Jesus. On the OTHER hand, how it is even possible to talk about experiencing God's LOVE apart from His Body? In this message, Max Vanderpool makes a case for why the most profound experiences of God's love are found in relationship and communion with other believers who are often very different from you.
Mar 12, 2023•32 min
Everyone Needs Forgiveness - Audio
We introduced the virtue of FORGIVENESS (which we define as "deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn't have to pay"), and we looked at an encounter with Jesus, a Pharisee named Simon, and a woman who had done many things requiring forgiveness. But she wasn't the ONLY person in the room who needed to be forgiven.
Mar 05, 2023•7 min
A New, Multi-Ethnic Family - Audio
Marwan Bishara, writing for Al-Jazeera in 2002, explained that it's obvious why Palestinians HATE Israelis. But he couldn't understand why Israelis hated Palestinians so much. As it turns out, one ethnic group HATING another is normal. It's THE normative experience for human history. Which is why Paul's statement in Ephesians 2 is so striking. The Apostle Paul claims that Jesus KILLED ethnic hostility on the cross for those who are IN Christ Jesus. In other words, instead of hating each other - ...
Feb 26, 2023•30 min
The Powers That Be - Audio
Are demons real? Are angels? Chances are, your religious background (or lack thereof) has affected HOW you answer those questions. And are demons and angels like what we see on television or in movies? In this message, Max Vanderpool teaches on the Apostle Paul's use of powers and authorities and what Paul meant by them. Their influence can be seen, not just in individuals, but also in societal, political, cultural, and religious systems.
Feb 19, 2023•25 min
Gifts with Strings - Audio
Americans believe that the PERFECT gift is both spontaneous AND something given with no strings attached (and no obligation of reciprocity). And so when we read that salvation is God's GIFT to us, that's HOW we tend to see it. But throughout the ancient world (the Hebrew world, the Persian world, the Babylonian world, the Roman world, the Jewish world), gifts were nearly always given with the expectation of reciprocity...because a gift was often given to initiate a relationship. In this message,...
Feb 12, 2023•27 min
Respect - Calling the Disciples - Audio
Because Jesus is God - when Jesus says something, God is saying something. When Jesus does something, God is doing something. And when Jesus feels something, we're given a picture into how God feels about something. And DESPITE being God, Jesus spent a ridiculous amount of time around ORDINARY people - people who weren't necessarily the brightest, most beautiful, or most powerful. And we see something VERY IMPORTANT in the call Jesus issues to Peter, James, John, and Matthew.
Feb 05, 2023•11 min
The Future Is Now (Sort of) - Audio
How you think about the future matters, because how you think about the future affects the decisions that you make (today) and the feelings and attitudes you have. Among theologians, this is called ESCHATOLOGY. But make no mistake, the way in which the American church has tended to see the future (the world's going to burn, etc.) has affected how American Christians live out their faith. But what if the way we've tended to think about it or see it is NOT how the Bible presents it? What if the Ap...
Jan 30, 2023•23 min
Apparently, Identity Matters - Audio
Blessing. Predestined. Forgiveness. Blameless. Grace. God's Will. Adopted. Redemption. Glory. Believe. These are all words the Apostle Paul uses right out of the gate in his letter to the Ephesians. But as AMERICANS, we have a tendency to read a few things INTO these words - particularly words like predestined - and chosen. But what if we allowed Paul to define those words? And what exactly is Paul getting at in the first (lengthy) sentence in Ephesians?
Jan 22, 2023•27 min
The Mystery Revealed - Audio
Paul's letter to the Ephesians hits on many BIG themes like salvation, the nature of family, belonging, reconciliation, identity, powers, and holiness. And at the heart of this letter is Paul's insistence that, when what's been hidden gets revealed, it can change EVERYTHING. In this first message on Ephesians, Max Vanderpool attempts to allow Paul to speak to us today - and will be making a case that Paul simply taught Jesus 101 - putting into letter form the bigger things that Jesus taught and ...
Jan 15, 2023•27 min
Vindicated - Audio
In this final act in the Book of Esther, we see see the effects of a great reversal. Mordecai (the Jew) is vindicated. Queen Esther is vindicated. The Jews still living throughout the Persian Empire are vindicated. And, at the end of it all, God (Himself) is vindicated...because God always keeps His promises. At the end of everything, God will be vindicated, and those who put their trust in Him will also be vindicated.
Dec 18, 2022•22 min
Reversals - Audio
Life is full of reversals. There's the seemingly perfect marriage that plods along for 25 years only to be ripped apart by an affair and divorce. There's the uber-successful brother-in-law who purchases a vacation home and get promoted every year - only to suffer bankruptcy and the loss of everything. And then there are the other kind of reversals - the quiet friend at school who wasn't involved in ANY extra-curricular activities who, later in life, writes a NYT best-selling book. With these dra...
Nov 27, 2022•28 min
More than a Middleman - Audio
In the Middle East today, when a car accident happens (the fender-bender kind), everyone stops. Everyone gets out of their car. Because they might KNOW one of the people involved, and they might ALSO know someone at the police department (or hospital, or justice center). And they have an OBLIGATION to be a "friend" to their acquaintance involved in the wreck. We really don't have a word in English to adequately translate what a "mediator" is or does. Pity, because it's at the heart of how God us...
Nov 20, 2022•30 min
God Makes a Better Hero - Audio
In 1998, things hit the fan for then-president Bill Clinton. His two-year affair with 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky was made public. Setting aside the politics of it, most of us, had we been Monica's parents, would have felt that the president abused his power and mistreated our daughter. And so it is with presidents, kings, comedians, CEO's, pastors, and other people in positions of power and authority. And it's not unlike the Persian world of roughly 479 B.C. It's a culture where those in power ...
Nov 13, 2022•28 min
Courage (November InterGen) - Audio
In our November InterGen, Pastor Max retells the account of Joshua, Caleb and the twelve spies. Twelve spies were sent into the (promised) land to scout it out, map it, and report back what they had seen. Ten spies were afraid. Two spies were not. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to do what you should do (even when you're afraid).
Nov 06, 2022•8 min
Throw Down Your Staff - Audio
All of us at one point or another are afraid. And sometimes, those fears are warranted. And sometimes, they aren't. But in those moments of fear, we are presented with a choice: Can we live in faith when we are afraid? In this message, Brian Hull connects the call of Moses with the Apostle Paul's command to offer ourselves to God. The good news? God knows us, and God is with us.
Oct 30, 2022•28 min
One Click to Rule Them All - Audio
Americans walk away from freedom click by click, decision by decision, decade by decade, so much so that by the time they’re 40-45 years old, they’re stuck in a job they hate (but can’t leave), because they’re making payments: house, student loans, cars, credit cards. And coincidentally, our smartphones and smartwatches and smart-devices are accelerating these steps away from freedom through the use of "one-click." In this message, Max Vanderpool tackles how to handle debt and why it might be wi...
Oct 23, 2022•27 min
Proportional Trust - Audio
Why is it that some people are extraordinarily generous while others are exceedingly stingy? Why does the world have the likes of a Ronald Read and Sylvia Bloom and (also) the likes of a Montgomery Burns and Mr. Krabs? What does it mean to actually TRUST God with everything? And why is it that LOVE always involves a form of risk? In this message, Max Vanderpool, revisits the larger ideas of scarcity and abundance as they connect to trusting God.
Oct 16, 2022•29 min
Faith (or Trust) - Audio
If you've ever worked on a thousand-piece puzzle, you know that the lid (or the picture) is critically important. Without it, you have little chance of successfully putting the puzzle together. And yet, many people are trying to do just that when it comes to faith and life. In this message, Brian Hull comes to the "faith" part of our series Fear and Faith in Uncertain Times. And he wonders if maybe God is bigger than we have typically seen or felt or known or have experienced.
Oct 09, 2022•36 min
Grit and Grittiness - Audio
We might not always understand why we face seasons when we need grit. But we can trust that God is with us and will give us what we need to keep going.
Oct 02, 2022•16 min
(I'm) Valuable (and Not Comparing Myself to Others) - Audio
Social media has become social comparison, and we do it ALL the time. You take a family vacation to see family. Your Instagram friend takes a Disney cruise and goes snorkeling. They win. You lose. THEIR life is better. You break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend, because it isn't healthy. Your Instagram friend gets engaged and announces a destination wedding. They win. You lose. THEIR life is better. You move into an apartment/house and think, "this could work." Your Instagram friend does a majo...
Sep 25, 2022•27 min
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