October 2, 2016

Do you ever wonder what sort of legacy you are leaving? Do you wonder if people will remember you the way you want to be remembered or some other way? Do you think about what it is that you are really passing on to your kids or your friends or coworkers? We all really want to leave a good lasting impression, but many of us feel like we are far from doing it. Don’t you want to leave behind something that is really worth having? Don’t you want to share a great legacy with future generations? So what sort of legacy would be really worth sharing?

In the book of 2 Timothy, Paul tells his disciple Timothy that the grace of Christ can be shared to future generations. Paul teaches that the worship and witness of Jesus Christ is reproducible. We too can share the grace of Jesus with future generations. Our text gives three ways that we can make our worship and witness reproducible.

September 25, 2016

Do you tend to separate worshiping and witnessing into two different categories? Yet, I’ve noticed something, those that don’t participate in worship, don’t usually witness either. And those that love to worship, not just at church, but every day of the week, tend to be way of life witnesses. In other words, right worship leads to witness.

In the 96th Psalm, the Psalmist wrote that the nation of Israel should worship and bear witness to the glory of God so that all the earth would join in. The mission of that nation was to let their worship of God be a witness among the nations. We too can be missional through our worship and witness. The text gives three ways that our worship and witness is to be missional.

September 18, 2016

God is personal. He has personality–– will, emotion and intellect. God is relational. He has eternally existed in communion in the Trinity as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. According to Genesis, God made us in His own image. He made us personal. And He created us so that we might have a relationship with Him. He spoke all of creation into existence, but not so with humanity. He leaned in and “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Then, He took a rib from Adam and fashioned Eve. He walked in the cool of the garden of paradise and fellowshipped with Adam and Eve.

Unfortunately sin fractured their relationship with God and as a result we are born with a hunger for a relationship with God, but no way to accomplish it in our own power. So, we fill our lives with other things trying to satisfy this desire for knowing God, this emptiness in our souls that can’t be filled. And this relational brokenness affects not only our spiritual life, but it leads to broken relationships with others.

Why is there divorce, murder, war…? Why are we relational broken? Our sin has separated us from God. We need to be relationally restored. We need to be reconciled to God and with others.

September 11, 2016

In the book of Romans, Paul appeals to his fellow believers that they would become living sacrifices as worship before God. He tells the believers in Rome that their worship of Jesus will transform their life. We too can be transformed by our worship and witness of Jesus. The text gives us three ways to be transformed.

September 4, 2016

“Without worship, we go about miserable.” – A. W. Tozer

We are all worshipping, but sadly many are worshipping pointless things which leave us lacking or feeling empty. We put our hopes and dreams and affections in things that neither help us nor ground us in anything. Right worship puts the foundation in our lives. Some of us put worship on this specific day or in this particular box, we put our witness in this box, but the call to Christ is a completely decompartmentalized life of worship.