The Heart of the Gospel

1 Timothy 1:12–17

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“Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This is the heart of the gospel and it’s at the center of Paul’s testimony of the mercy and grace Jesus has shown him. Paul marvels that he has been entrusted with the gospel, even though he is the chief of sinners and a former persecutor of the church. He bookends his testimony with thanksgiving and praise as he reflects on why and how Jesus’s mercy came to him.

This weekend, we too will reflect on why and how Jesus’s mercy came to Paul and why and how Jesus’s mercy comes to us. We’ll be reminded of the simple gospel—Jesus came into the world to save sinners–and the profound and far reaching impact of that truth. Lord willing, our hearts too will sing with praise: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Would you join us this Sunday at 10am at the Skyline plaza to glory in the mercy of Jesus?

Sunday Music

God So Loved, He Gave

John 3:16–18

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This week, we’ll be looking closely at one of the most familiar passages in the Bible: John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Familiarity with this passage can dull our response. God so loved, he gave! This isn’t just true when God sent Jesus into the world; God has always loved by giving. We saw two weeks ago from Genesis 1–2 that God loved Adam and Eve by creating a world filled with abundance and a garden for them to live in and enjoy God’s very- goodness.

Tragically, as we saw last week in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were tempted by the Serpent to distrust God’s loving generosity on display for them and instead try to secure their own blessing through disobedience. Their disobedience had disastrous results. We left off with Adam and Eve cast out of the provision and presence of God in the garden with nothing but a promise that one day an offspring of the woman would crush the head of the Serpent. Going into Genesis 4 and beyond, we ask: “Whose story will they believe? The story of the God of the Gardens or the Story of the Serpent?” The outlook isn’t very hopeful.

This week, we’ll see that when hope seems lost, God does something surprising: he gives again. First to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Abraham’s descendants. All through the Old Testament, God so loved, he gave! God proves again and again and again the true story: He loves his image-bearers. He will care for them. He will bring them into a land filled with beauty and abundance again. He will one day give a Serpent-crushing Savior to his people.

How will his people respond to his loving generosity? Will they believe him or continue to believe the Serpent? That’s the story we’ll hear together this weekend. Join us at 10 am at the Skyline Plaza to worship together the God who gives!

Sunday Music

Thorns and Thistles

Genesis 3:1–24

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This weekend is week three of our advent series: “Delighting in the Generosity of God.” Last weekend, we saw from Genesis 1–2 that God created a world where everything was “very good” and planted a garden full of bounty and beauty. And he created Adam and Eve in his image and placed them in this garden to savor his gifts and spread his generosity throughout creation. Like Adam and Eve, we were created to live in and extend this garden as we enjoyed God’s generosity.

Looking around us in 2019, we can see something went terribly wrong. With even a cursory glance, we see a world around us filled with scarcity and brokenness; a world where there doesn’t seem to be enough and many people experience extreme lack. And we see others fight over and hoard what little there is. And if we look inside ourselves, we see our own disappointment with what we have and our desire for more. The story our world tells us now seems very different than the story we saw in Genesis 1–2. What went wrong? How did we go from bounty and beauty to thorns and thistles?

This is the story of Genesis 3. Because Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s false story of a god who hoards the best for himself, they ate of the forbidden fruit and unleashed an avalanche of destruction into God’s very good creation. This weekend, we’ll look at the story of Genesis 3 and trace the path from distrust to disobedience to disaster. But we’ll also see the true story of the generosity of God continue to bring light to darkness as God promises a descendant of the woman who will one day crush the head of the serpent. Would you join us this Sunday at 10 am at the Skyline Plaza as we hear this story together?

Sunday Music

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Genesis 1:1–2:3

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Last week, we began our advent series: “Delighting in the Generosity of God.” We saw from Luke 12 that whether we have plenty or lack, we are often preoccupied with “enoughness” rather than the God of more than enough. We see a world of scarcity around us and struggle to believe God is really generous. Our preoccupation with enoughness prevents us from enjoying God as a generous giver and from seeking his kingdom and imitating his generosity. We remain preoccupied with enough because we see a world full of scarcity and believe the wrong story.

Jesus’ solution is to look at God’s care for creation as evidence to point us to the true story—the Story of the God of the Gardens. This week, we will turn to the beginning of Genesis to look at the beginning of this story. We’ll see that in the beginning, God created a world filled with abundance and created us to live in this world, savoring and spreading his generosity. To see the world like Jesus saw the world and to live free from anxiety and in obedience to the Father as Jesus did, we need to see this story with fresh eyes and let it frame our thinking. Would you join us this Sunday at 10 am at the Skyline Plaza as we do that together?

Sunday Music

Birdwatchers and Botanists

Luke 12:13–34

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This Sunday, we begin our advent series “Delighting in the Generosity of God.” I’m really excited for this series because I often forget how generous God is. I bet many of you are the same. We desperately need to be reminded. Many of you are in the same boat. Whether you’ve received plenty and drift into forgetting the Giver or whether you have lack and doubt the generosity of the Giver, I’m confident that this sermon series will stir your heart to delight in God’s generosity towards you this Christmas season.

We'll start by looking at Luke 12. We'll see how our preoccupation with “enoughness” has caused us to forget the God of more than enough. Because we see scarcity all around us, we believe and live by the story that there is not enough. We think that by securing enough for us and ours we can be safe and satisfied.

But that’s not the story Jesus believes and lives by. He calls us to be birdwatchers and botanists as we consider the generosity of the God of the Garden. Jesus wants us to pay attention to His story—the story of a God who gave and still gives. And Jesus wants us to live like we believe it by casting aside anxious worry and mimicking the generosity of our creator.

We’ll start unpacking this story this weekend and continue through the advent season. Would you join us this Sunday at 10 am? Let’s delight in the generosity of God together.

Sunday Music

Stand Firm Thus

Phil 4:1–9

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How do we keep following Jesus in a world full of temptation and trials, distraction and division, sorrow and suffering? How do we stand firm in the Lord when our knees are shaking? This is Paul’s concern in Philippians 4.

After warning that perseverance is a matter of life and death (Phil 3:17–21), Paul writes, “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved” (Phil 4:1). Stand firm begins a series of imperatives all aimed at the goal that the saints in Philippi would keep following Jesus. Paul doesn’t tell the Philippians what to do so much as he tells the Philippians how to think. In other words, they stand firm not by doing a series of tasks but by adopting certain attitudes. They stand firm by resolving by grace to think like Jesus. Join us this Sunday at 10 am at the Skyline Plaza as we unpack these attitudes together. May the Lord stir our hearts to resolve by grace to think like Jesus.