Promise Made, Promise Fulfilled
God was faithful to Abraham and Sarah in fulfilling His promise of a...
The promise of being resurrected to eternal life with Christ gives us a hope like no other. This promised life to come should motivate us to live a life dedicated to serving the Lord in all we do. As hardships and challenges rise up, we can endure them with joy knowing that the best is yet to come.
The hope we have in Jesus includes the promise of being physically resurrected with Christ into new, eternal life. While our current bodies are mortal, subject to sickness and aging and destined to die, we look forward to the resurrection in which we’ll have physical, resurrected bodies - free from the presence of sickness or death and able to live physically in the presence of God forever. While the Bible doesn’t tell us every detail about what these bodies will be like, the glimpses it provides through Jesus’ own resurrection should give us an excited anticipation of our eternal life to come.
Everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection, the entirety of Christianity falls apart: our sin remains, death isn’t defeated, and Jesus was simply a good moral teacher who died like all others. But thanks be to God that the resurrection is true! Jesus overcame sin, death and the grave by resurrecting to new life so that we could have new life in him. We have the eternal hope that we too will be raised to life when He returns to make all things new.
The truth of the gospel transforms the lives of those who receive it. There is no other idea, message, or focus that is more important than the truth that Jesus Christ - God in human form - came to live a perfect life, die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin, defeat death and rise to new life so that in him we might live. Are you ready to share this message of hope with the people around you?
The gathering of the church is a beautiful mixture of people following Jesus together, each bringing their God-given gifts and abilities to love and serve one another for the glory of God. The Apostle Paul reminds the church that when we gather, it’s important to bring our gifts to bear in an orderly way that brings encouragement and not confusion. And as words of prophecy or encouragement are shared, we test everything against God’s Word, always seeking to build up the church body.
Paul reminds us that spiritual gifts are not given for self-centered display, but rather for the building up of the church. Love must guide how we use our gifts, and clarity in speech is more valuable than impressive words if it helps others grow in Christ. When the church gathers, the focus should be on strengthening, encouraging, and comforting one another, so that both believers are built up, and unbelievers can clearly encounter God’s presence.
What does real love look like? The Apostle Paul reminds the church that no matter how gifted or persuasive or influential we might be in the world, none of that matters if we don’t show genuine love to others. Not a superficial or conditional love, but a love that follows the very model of Jesus Himself.
In a world that often celebrates individualism, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 that we are all uniquely gifted to serve as essential members of one unified body—the Church. We are diving into how our differences are not divisions but divine designs for a greater purpose in Christ.
What are spiritual gifts? Every follower of Jesus has been gifted uniquely by God in a way that will bring blessing to others and glory to Him. Whether it’s a gift of healing or wisdom, faith or discernment, these gifts are meant to be shared with others in the church family as we encourage one another and build one another up.
From the beginning, God’s heart has been for the whole world, creating us to reflect His image and making a way through Jesus for all people to know His love. His mission continues through us as we bring His light, His hope, and the Good News of Jesus to those near and far. In Acts 1:8, Jesus calls us to be His witnesses everywhere we go, and everywhere he sends us. We have been invited and empowered by God to share in His mission to spread His gospel HERE, NEAR, AND FAR.
Previous12345678910 ... 3940Next
Sermons by: Genesis 21:1 34
The Genesis of Fatherhood: Lessons From Three of Our First Father's
For Father's Day, we look at two dads in the book of Genesis. Through...