Waiting can be hard, because in waiting, what we want to happen just hasn't happened yet. And waiting can especially be hard at Christmas. In Luke chapter two, there's a Christmas story for those who wait. It's not the Christmas story most of us are familiar with.
Unlike Esther, who was not confident her life would be saved if she obeyed God, we know how the story ends: God wins. The only question is whether or not we’re willing to follow God’s purpose for our lives and be a part of what he is doing in the world.
As we finish strong in our two-year Multiply faith journey, it’s timely to take a look at a passage in Galatians 6 that speaks to the principle of sowing and reaping. We’ll look at how God multiplies in kingdom fruit what we offer to him with open hands and how our money infallibly reveals what we worship.
Paul ends his letter to the Galatians by tying together his two main concerns of gospel integrity and relational unity and giving a litany of practical applications—not a list of things to do but out-workings of what has been done for us through Jesus Christ.
One of the familiar themes from Galatians is the finished work of Jesus and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Paul wants us to understand that sin will lose its grip on our lives when we focus less on limiting the power of sin—the desire to do the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit—and more on the growing presence of God in our lives. Only when we soak ourselves in the love of Jesus and what he did for us will we really come alive and bear fruit.
In this message, Pastor J.D. talks about the ongoing uses for the law in our lives and learn how being justified by faith actually drives us in devotion back to the law and gives us the desire to obey out of love for God our Father.
Have you ever been at a point where you wondered why, even after becoming a Christian, you still feel unhappy or you can’t find peace or satisfaction or you just can’t make a relationship work? In his letter to the Galatians, which we’ll continue studying this weekend, the Apostle Paul explains why we can’t just think of salvation as simply Jesus Christ paying our sin debt. We have to recognize that sin leaves us not only guilty before God but also unable to live the Christian life, and the only...
In this message Pastor J.D. unpacks four kinds of freedom that Paul says we should have when we believe in Jesus - all illustrated in a story of a confrontation between Paul and Peter.
God has given you a lens through which to see how God has been preparing you - through your gifts and experiences and even through your sins and failures - to tell others about his grace, and he’s given you his Word in which to ground your statement of belief.
In the first message from the series "Freedom in the In-Between", Pastor J.D. talks about why Martin Luther considered it the most important book of the Bible, how only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save us, and why we have to fight for it.
Many of us suffer from something that we often cannot see in its entirety in ourselves: an undisciplined life. The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of instruction and rebuke to those of us that find ourselves neck deep in indiscipline.
"Eat, drink, and be merry” may not sound like sound biblical instruction, but that often seems like Solomon’s main point in the book of Ecclesiastes. God wants his people to "eat, drink, and be merry", but that is not the end of it. Solomon is speaking from the perspective of one who, like us, lives under the sun. In this message, Pastor J.D. looks at the conclusions drawn in Ecclesiastes and how they should shape the lives of us as believers, who know there is much more to look forward to over ...
Ecclesiastes makes no apologies for its blunt talk about the senselessness of living. In this message, Pastor J.D. looks at several ways Solomon experienced this absurdity but also what we should do while we are under the sun in light of our eternal perspective and what we know to be true over the sun.
Our default mode is to "be better", "do more", and "try harder" in order preserve and provide for ourselves and our families. But in Psalm 127, we are reminded that we will only experience the true rest that God promises when we embrace our true role and trust in him, because he has already provided for us.
In 1 Kings 11, the downfall of the wisest man who ever lived seems to come out of nowhere. But does it really? Were there any warning signs along the way? In this message, Pastor J.D. takes a look at what brings a good man, even the world’s wisest man, down and what we can learn from his mistakes.
Matthew 25:14-30
In this message, Pastor J.D. takes a closer look at Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple. We’ll see how, in his embodiment of his knowledge of God and thanks for God’s faithfulness, our right understanding of God can lead us to ask him in faith to use us and pour out his blessing.
At the most basic level, what does it take to be a fruitful Christian?
The fruit of the Spirit is not about achieving something, because you can’t anyways. Rather, it is about knowing someone, and his name is Jesus.
In this message, Pastor Will Toburen shares five characteristics of faithful evangelism that we see from the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well.
One of the greatest misconceptions about the church is that we don't sin very much. We often live superficial lives of fake smiles. Sadly, over time God's people have learned to hide sin and sorrow. But the church is not a showcase of Colgate smiles. It's a hospital for sinners.
In Malachi we see how the cycle of Israel’s persistent unfaithfulness is mirrored in many people’s lives today. Though they keep trying harder and doing more religious things, Malachi reminds them—and us—that we cannot do more to make a way for our reconciliation with God but that he would send someone who would do it for us.
Can you think of a more common question being cried out in the midst of a difficult season of life than “How am I going to make it through this?” Maybe that’s the cry of your heart today. Or maybe you’re wondering where God is in your pain or how what you’re going through is fair. We’ve all asked these questions at some point in our lives. As you read through Habakkuk, consider this: Habakkuk’s hope came from remembering what God had done for Israel in the past and repeating what he knew to be t...
If Amos were a modern-day prophet, he would be equally unpopular in our midst, because he could point out the same truths about our culture and even some uncomfortable truths about the church. But we’ll learn from this Minor Prophet that when we start treating sin lightly, we don’t take God seriously. And if we don’t start taking sin seriously, we’ll never experience the presence of God in our lives.
The book of Joel has some pretty vivid imagery that helps us picture how devastating the power of sin is and yet how life-giving God’s law is when it takes root in our hearts. We discover that, like the Israelites, the locusts eating away at our lives are actually God’s mercy. He wants us back, and he’ll bring us to the end of ourselves if that’s what it takes for us to turn from sin and be restored to him.
In this message Pastor J.D. preaches on the fascinating story of Hosea and how it reflects God’s love for us. We learn how, when we see just how passionately God has always pursued his people, we become more and more like him.
