From the Blog
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Renovating Our Feelings
Our feelings can be both a blessing and a curse. We might even put them into two categories of feeling: pleasurable or painful; and two categories of effect: helpful or harmful. That’s why we’ve entitled today’s sermon: Renovating Our Feelings.” In becoming like Christ, our hearts, our minds and our feelings too, must be renovated. Because feelings are a major influence on how we make decisions. Feelings affect the heart as the seat of the will.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he taught them how to yield their desires and feelings to the Spirit of God for renovation, so that they would no longer be controlled by their old nature. We can yield our feelings to God’s Spirit for renovation. -
Renovating Our Thinking
What kind of ideas and images inhabit your mind, your thinking? Where did they come from? Do you have a mindset, a worldview, shaped by the Word of God as applied by the grace and Spirit of God? Or is your thinking shaped by the culture you’ve grown up in? The truth is, as believers, we all struggle with being “double-minded,” having competing ideas and images in our thinking. Some from God and some from the world.
God wants to renovate our thinking so that we have the mind of Christ. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he taught believers to yield their minds, their thinking, to Christ for renewal, for transformation, for renovation. We can yield our minds, our thinking, to Christ for renovation. -
The Heart of the Matter
We all tend to think that if we could renovate our house, or our job, or our marriage, or our …, then we’d be happy, but the truth is that life is not lived from the outside – in, but from the inside – out. We live from our hearts. So what does it mean to let God renovate, to transform our hearts? It means to have the heart of Christ, the character of Christ formed in you.
Are you growing in Christ, becoming more like Him in character and behavior? Do you want to? Do have a desire to grow in Christ, having His life and character fully formed in you?
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he instructed believers that since they had been raised to new life in Christ Jesus, God wanted to renovate their hearts, so that the character of Christ was formed in them. Having received Christ as Lord and Savior, we can actively yield our hearts to God, so that Christ is formed in us. -
A New Thing
Our God is constantly doing a new thing. I don’t know what kind of year you had last year. Perhaps it was a great year, you experienced financial freedom or growth in a relationship or a new and exciting career path. Perhaps it was an extremely difficult year, you lost a loved one, lost a job, your health has deteriorated, your bank account has gone dry. Or perhaps just another year, another number gone by, just another dull date in your past. Regardless, the encouragement to you remains the same … Our God is doing a new thing!
In the book of Isaiah, God spoke to His people and encouraged them that He was doing a new thing. This new thing would be a way through the wilderness and provision in their greatest need. We too can be encouraged by God who brings newness of life. -
Rediscover the Story
Everyone loves a story. And the best stories are worth telling over and over again.
What story are you telling yourself this Christmas. Is it a story about your past? Past mistakes you’ve made? Past hurts you’ve experienced? Or maybe it’s today’s story? So many of us get discouraged and even depressed at this time of year. Maybe there’ll be an empty seat at the Christmas dinner table this year? You’ve lost a loved one and Christmas won’t be the same? Or maybe it’s because we’re telling ourselves the wrong story. What if there’s a better story? In Luke’s gospel, an angel of the Lord invited the shepherds to come and be part of Christ’s story. The Lord still invites us to be part of Christ’s story. -
Rediscover the Worship
What is worship? It’s whatever you value or love the most. It’s what you spend your time, talent and treasure for as your greatest source of significance and security. That’s worship. It’s whatever or whoever you ascribe the greatest worth to. Ironically Christmas might be the most difficult time of the year to truly worship God because we are tempted to put more of our affections on material things and spending money.
Don’t you feel the tension? Don’t you feel the pressure to spend more money than you have in order to give your kids everything on their list? You want everyone to be happy and you want to be happy, so you spend, spend, spend… And the more you spend, the less it feels like Christmas. Or what it’s supposed to mean. In the gospel of Matthew, the story of the birth of Jesus is told within the political backdrop of the times. From the beginning there was a battle between worshiping the true King and the false king Herod that had usurped His Throne. The challenge for us is to remove our worship from the false king and to put our worship on the true King, Jesus Christ. -
Rediscover the Mystery
Do you have sense of mystery this Christmas season? Or have you lost the sense of mystery you had as a child? Wouldn’t you like to rediscover the sense of mystery this Christmas?
Some of life’s greatest mysteries have to do with origins. Like the origin of the universe, or the origin of life, or of intelligence. But why would we consider such mysteries at Christmas? The gospel according to John opens up with one of the most amazing and mysterious prologues in the Bible. For in John’s gospel, he revealed the mystery that Jesus Christ was the Son of God come in the flesh. We can rediscover the mystery of Christmas by considering what John revealed about Jesus. -
Rediscover the Anticipation
Do you feel a sense of anticipation as Christmas approaches? For many, Christmas has become just another secular holiday, albeit the biggest of all holidays. But rather than having a sense of happy anticipation, some have a sense of dread or complacency. But remember when we were children? Christmas was so mysterious and wonderful then. Wouldn’t you love to rediscover the anticipation of Christmas?
What’s your perspective on Christmas this year? Has inflation limited your Christmas giving? Maybe you lost your job and don’t know how to have Christmas for your family this year? Perhaps you recently lost a loved one and there’ll be an empty seat at your Christmas dinner this year? Or your family has gone through a divorce and Christmas has gotten too complicated? Or maybe all the focus on shopping and spending has sapped your joy? I have good news. There’s a better way. Let’s rediscover Christmas together this year!
In Isaiah 9, the prophet proclaimed a word from the Lord concerning the coming of the long anticipated Messiah. We can rediscover the anticipation of Christmas by looking back in faith at Christ’s partial fulfillment of that prophecy by His first coming and looking forward in hope for His soon return. -
In All Circumstances
When we think of God's will, sometimes we think about asking God to clearly tell us what decision to make about my careers, relationships, major purchases.
It’s not that God doesn’t care about these major life decisions, but He cares more about the heart than he does the decisions of the heart.
Do you want to know the transformed life? Do you want to experience God’s will for your life? In Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica, he taught them that God’s will for them was to be spiritually transformed in Christ Jesus. We can experience God’s will for us through spiritual transformation. -
Gospel Guidance, Greetings, and Glory
The gospel reveals God’s love and righteousness to us and Paul closes the letter the way he began, with the gospel.
In Romans 16:17-27, the apostle Paul closed his letter to the believers in Rome with a final word of gospel guidance, greetings, and God’s glory. Even in closing his letter, Paul was showing them how to apply the gospel to their relationships. We can apply the gospel to our relationships.