It's essential for life and ministry to intentional be set aside or set apart to enter a time of deep soul searching, learning from God’s word, but more importantly personal rearrangement of your life and lifestyle. To form habits in the private part of your life that will be essential for godliness, relationships, and ministry.
God is all knowing and unchanging. No detail escapes notice. Faithful to complete his plans. But when it comes to our experience He deliberately surprises us with difficult assignments. Sometimes he uses surprises to expose a sin, cultivate a Christ like quality in us or open a door of ministry. But he always supplies sufficient grace to handle the unexpected.
There is no one more persistent than God. We are no match for Him. When He wants to do something, He does it. When He wants someone, He gets them. No thing is impossible. No person is out of reach. When God decides to pursue a person, he gets them every time.
The work of salvation is God's from start to finish. He invites us to the joy of being a means by which He does it. In Acts 8, we have an example of how a simple clear conversation about Jesus is all it takes. In Christ, we can do this.
We know that a ministry is authentic when the person of Christ is central, accompanied by a freedom from the power of sin, and evidencing contagious joy.
When a person dies in faith in Jesus Christ, they are welcomed home, not rejected. This gives us confidence and hope to live boldly before God and others in the here and now.
Times of stress allow us to demonstrate the power of the gospel in real time, to all who see, that we can take it. Those of you under pressure, have no idea how God is using your life right now. You are displaying what faith in Christ looks like to a watching world.
As a church grows and becomes more programmed, individuals can be overlooked. Add to that the scattering of our membership during the pandemic and it can be hard to know who is still with us. There may be individuals asking: Does anyone even know my marriage is struggling or that I’m engrossed in sin or facing financial hardship? Do they even care? Who is there to help and walk with me through it? We have to somehow make sure we’re passionate about reaching more and more while at the same time i...
After Jesus was presented in the Temple, two elderly persons rejoiced at the sight of him. The woman, Anna, shows us how ordinary obedience, even in life’s drudgeries and setbacks, is how God chooses to work in extraordinary ways. In quiet obedience, she models who we are, what we are, and why we are, always pointing to where we are—in Jesus.
Jesus is offering you Himself as your God and Savior. Right now. He quietly, every year, gets the message across. And of all years, he would love to just show up in your life. And the way that happens isn’t just to read about him, but personally know Him.
It’s Christmas. He’s given us another one. Yet another season of time to reflect and respond to him. Do you know him? Have you felt compelled by his life today? What did he cause you to feel? Amazement, astonishment, marveling, questions? Has there been a time where you believed? When you said Jesus you became sin for my sake.
How do I know that Jesus is the Son of God? John 1 gives us 4 reasons. He is eternal. He created all things. He gives spiritual life to man. He was the very representation of God on earth. Receive Him in His fullness.
Advent is a time dedicated to the truth that God always and forever keeps his promises. God makes promises, keeps promises, and fulfills his promises. Ultimately, all his promises have their "yes and amen" in Jesus. Advent reminds us that Jesus is the promise God keeps.
Christ, the Chief Shepherd, has decided that He will do his winning through his sheep. It's not on us to be attractive, powerful, and skilled extraordinary people. All we do as sheep is depend on the ability and wisdom of the Shepherd to know what to do and how to do it.
This is a story that took place in the first century, but is relevant to us, as a warning. A warning against being a Christian fake. Not just in pulpits, but in the pews. And messages like this need delivered on occasion to wake us up to take God seriously and to take these words personally.
These are great days in which to live as a Christian. We have the opportunity and calling to boldly make known the person and work of Jesus Christ. This requires courage. This courage comes through a humble dependence on God's sovereignty and power, as well as our personal dependence and involvement with fellow believers.
Religion is the enemy of authentic Christianity. It seeks to intimidate any who oppose it and it's based on human wisdom. It rejects it's need for Christ and it lacks God's power. Authentic Christianity, has the hope of resurrection, the confidence of the Spirit's power, and the promise of salvation. The main thing we need is a relationship with Jesus. The last thing we need is any other substitute.
We all are born spiritually crippled. Jesus raises us up by his mercy and gives us faith. The result is total forgiveness, spiritual refreshment, and total restoration.
All of us have mental and emotional memories of church embedded in us. Our default setting is to form opinions based on our church experiences. The goal in this sermon is to set those aside and instead let God’s opinion permeate regarding what a local church's priorities are to be.
Acts 2:37-41 isn't in our Bible to cause theological controversy but to bring the offer of hope and salvation to sinners. We can arrive at some very firm convictions from the Bible about God’s plan of saving sinners. That includes sinners then and there in the first century and the sinners here and now at Redemption Church.
The first thing that happens when the Spirit is poured out on the church is the preaching of Jesus Christ. Great preaching is simple, biblically based, and Christ centered. Peter's sermon is all three. He preaches six Christ centered doctrines that call for an immediate response from his listeners, including us.
This is a key moment in the book of Acts. God gives the Holy Spirit to indwell His people. The result is power. In chapter 1 they are held back. In chapter 2 they are sent to the streets. In chapter 1 the Son ascends. In chapter 2 the Spirit descends. This is the beginning to a whole new transition in God’s kingdom. But it is a chapter that has been terribly confused. Our goal is to take it simply and read it clearly and understand it accurately so we can apply it correctly.
The followers of Christ simply obeyed Jesus command to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to empower them. While waiting, they prayed, sought the Scriptures, and asked for his leadership. God is not looking for perfect performance, but dependent believers. God's plan isn't complicated, but simple.
All followers of Christ are witnesses to his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to empower that witness. In this passage we learn four things that power of the Spirit is and isn't. The power isn't a symbol, but is a reality. The Spirit is not a program, but is an ability. The power isn't to promote, but is to witness. The power isn't restricted, but is universal.
Jesus Christ is God's message for the world. God's people are God's messengers to the world. No other book of the Bible inspires the richness and courage our present mission better than the book of Acts. And no book affirms more clearly our God given power to persevere and make Christ known. We may be small in number, but no remnant was ever more sure of its future.
There is a certain fragrance to the gospel. It often smells like victory. It should smell like hope. But most of all, it must smell like Jesus. Some people will love that smell and be attracted to it. Others will hate that smell and be repulsed by it. Still, wherever we go and whatever we do, we will carry the fragrance of the gospel with us, as life to life and death to death.
Jesus’ Great Commission to his disciples are not just his parting words of encouragement to a bewildered, doubting band of believers. They are the backbone of everything the church does in this world and in preparation for the next. They give us all the confidence, assurance, boldness, power, energy, and belief we need to be on mission. Jesus is above us all, Jesus is in us all, and Jesus is with us all—we cannot fail.
In this text, Jesus gives us five reminders to help us fight anxiety. To do so, we must first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
You will never kill personal sin until you kill the power of sin. You may stunt it’s growth. You may stall its effects. You may keep it at bay. You may even choke it to unconsciousness. But in order to kill it, you must get to its source.
We’ve seen what we ought to know about our identity as Christians—now we’ll see how we ought to live out that identity. It’s Jesus who tells us who we are, and it’s Jesus who tells us how to live. We must be rooted in Jesus, built up in Jesus, and firmly established in Jesus for all we are and ever will be as Christians.
