Do we enter the family of God based on what we do for Him or by trusting in what He has done for us? The good news (gospel) is that God sent His Son Jesus because He loves us apart from what we do or do not do for Him. After we believe this message by faith, our process of transformation begins in His way and His timing as He conforms us to become more like our Lord Jesus. This is amazing grace. In today’s message from Acts 15 we discover that this unconditional love of God is so foreign to the human way of thinking that people often add requirements beyond faith in Jesus. When people do this we must follow the example of Jesus’ first disciples by lovingly, yet firmly, affirming, “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” for God’s sake, our sake and the sake of the world.
God often leads disciple making communities to send and support specific people to show and tell the good news that Jesus is Lord of all beyond their own city. In our recent journey through Acts 13 and 14 we have seen how God called Paul and Barnabas from their church in Antioch to take His message of grace throughout Galatia. In our message today, we learn that after their journey God led them to circle back to their sending partners in Antioch in order to “declare all that God had done with them.” Today we hear a brief summary of this text followed by a report from Don and Janet Guizzetti. Don and Janet are followers of Jesus and partners with Hope who have who have recently returned from their second missionary trip among the people of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (West Africa).
Annually Hope Community Church asks God for an intentional focus for our Sept. through Aug. ministry year. This year’s focus is to shift to become a more relational disciple-making church. As our elders, leaders and ministry areas have begun intentionally seeking to follow Jesus and equip others to do the same, some people have asked a valid and important question, “Why?” In this message Dean Wertz explains several reasons for this year’s emphasis and casts a vision for what this could look like for generations to come.
There’s nothing like a near-death experience to give one clarity about what’s most important. It’s in this context that Paul got thinking about succession: leaving a legacy, establishing a lasting influence, and investing in the next generation. In this text we see the shift in Paul from being primarily a sower, to becoming both a sower and a weeder/tiller/pruner. So instead of moving on…
We are made to worship. God engineered our souls to thirst for increasing doses of delight. So throughout our city as in the 1st century city of Lystra men and women seek pleasure in many unsatisfactory quests. In this text the Apostle Paul succinctly declares the secret for every soul, “Turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” Listening to this message will clarify for you why only God will satisfy your soul and equip you to expand your delight in Him.
Have you noticed how some followers of Jesus seem to have something special when it comes to helping others come to believe in and follow Jesus as Lord? The Apostle Paul was used by God to point thousands of people toward a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As we seek to be disciples who help others to become disciples, this message unveils values that God used in Paul to draw many to become disciples of Jesus. What if we all learned from Paul as he learned from Christ?
Many years ago Saint Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” In today’s message, we meet Sergius Paulus, a Roman proconsul on the island of Cyprus, who appeared to have it all. Yet he longed for more. Overcoming great distances, a dangerous ocean and discouraging words, God sent messengers…
Why do we still send out missionaries in our contemporary world? Aren’t there enough needs to address locally? Since people’s spiritual framework is intertwined with their culture, isn’t it disrespectful to enter their world for the purpose of influencing their religion? If you ever grapple with questions like these this message will provide three God-centered motivations for followers of Jesus to join our centrifugal God by sending missionaries and/or going ourselves until the whole earth is “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Have you noticed how often a difficulty arises once you take a step to faithfully do what God wants you to do? In our passage today, strong opposition came against God’s people when king Herod killed James and captured Peter to kill him as well. If you desire to see God break through like only He can do this message will encourage you to anticipate opposition, pray to our King and know with certainty that He will deliver you in His time according to His plan for His glory and your amazement.
Aspen forests grow as each tree distributes seeds and sends out root sprouts. Similarly, our exalted Jesus expands His Kingdom here on earth in various ways through ordinary people like you and me. In this message by Dean Wertz, united with a God exalting testimony from Uriel Luebcke, founder and Pastor of SkateMinistry.org, you will be inspired to discover, and then remain steadfast to, your divine purpose.