In the Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back” there is the renowned scene where the main character and protagonist, Luke Skywalker, is fighting Darth Vader, the antagonist, in a life and death lightsaber battle. Luke passionately accuses Darth Vader of killing his father when Vader responds with those famous words “No, I am your father!” In a moment of time Luke’s world is turned upside down because he has discovered that the origin of his life was from the most evil person he knew. That moment is the climax in the Star Wars saga because discovering who he really was provided the foundation for Luke to reach his ultimate fulfillment. The same is true for us as human beings. What we believe about our origins will have a profound effect on what our purpose for living is, how we view ourselves and relate to others. Genesis 1 records that our origins are from God and we are created in His image. But what does it mean to be created in His image? Join us this Sunday as we unpack Genesis 1 and how our design points to the designer.
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Scripture reminds us to “. . . make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:16b). Many people miss the significance of the present day because they are so focused on either the past or the future. The devil wants Christians to miss opportunities to serve God by the evil of regret from the past or worry about the future. Psalm 118:24 is a powerful verse that reveals the magnitude of each day as an opportunity to discover true joy and significance for life. Are you consumed with confusing emotions from your past? Does anxiety cripple you about what might be in the future? God offers salvation from both our past and the future by receiving the blessing of “this day” as a gift from Him. This short verse is packed with meaning and dynamic application for our lives – Join us this Sunday and see how each day is “A Day Like No Other.”
Nearsightedness is an eye condition whereby a person cannot see things well at a distance but can clearly see things that are close to them. Perhaps you or someone you know is nearsighted and has to use corrective lenses to see things at a distance clearly. Without corrective lenses a nearsighted person will have difficulty seeing signs, buildings, landscapes and even other people that are far away. Children that are nearsighted often struggle in school because they can’t see what the teacher is writing on a board for the entire class.
The christian can be plagued by a similar affliction; Spiritual Nearsightedness. In 1 Peter 1:8-11 the Apostle Peter talks about this. He warns that if the believer is not consistently growing in the seven areas we considered last week in verses 5-7 that person is nearsighted, becoming ineffective and unproductive for the Kingdom of God. A nearsighted believer is one that focuses primarily on the things that are near them and only directly affect their lives. Consequently, they miss seeing the bigger picture of what God is doing in His Kingdom. But there is good news! In the same way an eye doctor can prescribe corrective lenses, Peter prescribes a path to correcting spiritual nearsightedness. Join us this Sunday as we discover “Kingdom Vision.”
Do you remember the 1988 movie “Big” staring Tom Hanks? A pre-teen boy makes a wish to be an adult and low and behold, he wakes up the next morning a 30-year-old man. As you can imagine this boy gets himself into some interesting situations trying to live as a man, discovering that his quick movemet into adulthood was not the good thing he thought it would be. That movie is fictional because physical growth doesn’t happen like that. And neither does spiritual growth. Spiritual growth happens gradually throughout our entire life as we mature and become more like Christ. In 2 Peter 1:5-8 the Apostle Peter outlines a number of areas the believer is to grow in . . . gradually. The interesting thing about spiritual growth is that it happens through the hard things of life: our failures, hurst from others, our disappointments, and just the stresses that come from living in a fallen world. But that’s the point . . . growing spiritually is growing beyond dependance on the natural world to greater dependance on Christ. Join us Sunday for this important message from Pastor Andrew.
We often refer to the birth of a child as a miracle. When you stop to think about what actually happens in a mothers womb from the time of conception until the child is born it is nothing short of miraculous. Science tells us that immediately the DNA and gender of that person is determined. Soon a body and head start to form and then at 6 weeks a heart starts to beat. While still very dependant on the mother for life this child is now walking (actually swimming) to the beat of their own heart. Legs and arms followed by toes and fingers the child starts to look like a person. The 3D ultra sounds depict this young life in all their human splendor! As any woman that has carried a baby can tell you, the child in the womb has emotions and personality, acting and reacting in ways that are unique to that child. And when the child is finaly born, we gaze upon this life we can finally see and wonder in the miracle of life.
There is a parallel in the spiritual realm. Being a disciple of Chirst begins with a moment of spiritual birth. Jesus said plainly in John 3, “you must be born again.” A secon birth – a spiritual birth. If we consider the conception, development and physical birth of a child as a miracle, how much more so should we think of the second birth as a supernatural act of God. The Spirit of God, together with the Word of God works to convict and lead a person to conviction about God, our sin and how we can be restored in our relationship with God. Then comes the point when conviction gives way to the surrender of our lives to God’s wonderful provision for us in Christ and we are born a second time – born spiritually. Being a christian is not a further development of our natural selves. Being a christian is a New Kind of Life that God has supernaturally provided for us. Join us this Sunday as we look in 2 Peter 1 to discover The New Kind of Life the christian is supernaturally given from God.
This Sunday wraps up the eight week sermon series on the Beatitudes: “A Good Life Amid Moral Chaos.” The beatitudes are the opening statement to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, recapping major theological Old Testament themes and showing how they need to be applied to disciples living in this Church Age. The beatitudes are the most significant moral statements ever recorded and have profound impact on our lives today. The term “good life” is anotherway of saying “blessed” and points us to the kind of life God calls us to live. The “good life” is one that lives according to godly virtues as found in these verses.
If a person displays the first 7 beatitudes it’s a guarentee they will expereince the last one; persecution. It only makes sense. Living the Beatitudes means you are living counter to the fallen ways of the world and for that reason we will face pushback on our beliefs and our actions. While no one likes the idea of persecution the promise Christ gives is out of this world – the Kingdom of Heaven. The believer will face persecution the more we identify ourselves with Christ, but the more we identify ourseleves with Christ, the more of the Kingdom we will enjoy. Join us this Sunday for the final message in this series, Persecuted and Happy About It!
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer was facing some adversity as he was starting his new life at the North Pole. He was a bit different than “all of the other reindeer”, in that he had a blinking red nose. He quickly became the point of many jokes and nasty name-calling. Furthermore, he was ostracized from the rest of the community – he wasn’t included in the usual reindeer games. You know how the story goes . . .
How do you deal with conflict and adversity? The world can be tough, and society has developed some unhealthy ways of dealing with conflict. Are you familiar with the term “Karen?” (no offense to any real Karen’s reading this.) That term is in reference to a person that is triggered easily and responds to conflict in a disproportionate manner. The other option is to retreat from conflict and be content with relationships that are superficial at best. No one desires to fall into either one of those places but so many people do. Jesus offers an alternative – be a peacemaker. Join us this Sunday as we consider Peacemaking in An Age of Outrage.
We live in an age of self-expression. The Megan Trainor song “I Love Me” depicts societies focus on self: “But I can see it clearer when I’m lookin’ in the mirror, Saying God made me just right, I love me, I love me – I don’t know about you, but baby, I love me.” While it is important to have a healthy self esteem, if we believe everything we think, feel and act on is ok we will progressively fall into deeper and deeper sin and dysfunction, never changing to be what God intended us to be. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,” He is calling us to align better with God’s design for us. In the Bible we see two images that illustrate the concept of purity or the purifying process: pruning and fire. In pruning, the unproductive branches are removed so more fruit can be produced. Fire is used to refine alloy by heating it to a degree that the lesser material is removed to leave only the gold. Both pruning and a refiner’s fire are a process of removing something to achieve a desired result. Purity in the spiritual life is about removing the aspects of our lives that don’t align with God and his righteousness. Spiritual purity flies in the face of the self-expressive age we are living, and as with all the beatitudes, purity is counter to the values and actions of the society we live in. But purity is worth it. Why? Because look what we get – we will see God. Join us this Sunday for part 5 of this sermon series on the beatitudes: Purity in An Age of Self-Expression.
Mercy is the chief characteristic of God in the Old Testament. That’s right! It’s not His wrath but His mercy that prevails in describing God through those 39 books. Unfortunately, mercy is a misunderstood concept in our society, making it difficult to comprehend this vital biblical truth. Many states (not North Carolina) have what is called a No Fault car insurance which avoids assessing blame on either of the drivers involved in an accident. Society has adopted a “mercy light” version of mercy that is characterised by tolerance, attempting to gloss over guilt. But is it possible to experience true mercy without first acknowledging guilt? The mercy that describes God in the Old Testament does not gloss over sin or the guilt that comes with it. As a matter of fact, guilt must first be acknowledged before a person could enjoy the blessings of God’s mercy. Furthermore, God’s righteous holiness must be respected by the just punishment of that guilt. That is where mercy comes in. The gospel reveals the mercy of God in that when we acknowledge the guilt of our sin before a holy God, Christ becomes the object of God’s wrath on the cross so we can experience the radical love of God in the forgiveness of our sins. If we only ask God to tolerate our sins, His divine wrath is never satisfied and we would remain hopelessly separated from him. And how do we know if we have genuinely received the mercy of God? You will joyfully offer mercy to those that are burdened with guilt from a sin against you – something that can only be done in our lives through a supernatural work of God. Join us this Sunday as we take a deep dive into the refreshing waters of God’s Mercy.
Values are a popular concept today. It is used all the way from our highest-ranking elected officials to multibillion-dollar corporations, to philanthropists, to non-profit organizations, churches, and right down to the individuals. You could say there is a buffet of values today! Values encapsulate the purpose and goals of the person or group. Stating their values serves as a rutter that directs decisions and how resources are used. Values point to morals.
As the culture shifts to be more secular, we find the values of individuals or groups are often in conflict with the virtues of Scripture: when life begins, gender, marriage, the family, work ethic, the origin of the universe just to name a few. There is an attempt to have morals without God – But I would respectfully present to you that is an impossibility!
In 1896 George Jacob Holyoake, an atheist and coiner of the term Secularism, insisted it is possible to do good apart from God, saying, “It is good to do good.” What good was he referring to? Reflecting on what is good for secularists, sociologist Phil Zuckerman said, “The answer is simple: the Golden Rule. Being good means treating others as we would like to be treated. That is the bedrock of secular morality.” And who could argue that is not a good thing to do. However, unbeknownst to Zuckerman, the Golden Rule is taken from the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” What we see here is that there can be no true and lasting values or virtues or morals that are not based on God. For the Christian, our values need to be based on the virtue of Christ and the doctrine that is revealed in Holy Scripture.
Sunday, we are talking about the pursuit of righteousness. This righteousness is not subjective or individualistic. It is a clear reference to what is RIGHT based on the person and character of God! God himself is righteousness! He is always right! It is impossible for him to be wrong! God himself is the standard of what is right! Jesus’ promise is that hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied. Join us this Sunday as we find lasting satisfaction for our deepest hungers.
andymatt723 