Who are we? What is our purpose? What will bring us fulfillment? We are children of God, created to be in relationship with Him, follow His commandments and demonstrate His character for His glory and our joy.
Sermons by Arik Stewart (Page 4)
In the vineyard teaching, Jesus often describes fruit as being the result of abiding in Him. So, what is fruit? We believe fruit is anything and everything Jesus is doing in us and through us—in our community and other communities—all of which is worth celebrating.
We don’t suffer without reason. Because, when we suffer, people see our hope amidst it and are intrigued. When they ask about the reason for our hope, we have an opportunity to share our faith in Jesus. Are you prepared to share?
Long ago, king Solomon had to navigate many personal and public demands. Wisely, he sought help from God, Who gave him wisdom and inspired him to record it. Despite the span of thousands of years, our lives aren’t that different from Solomon’s. We live with increasing personal and public demands. Thankfully, God’s transcendent wisdom is applicable to our lives today.
We long for the fantastical and we long for the relational. Our resurrected king is the origin and perfect embodiment of them both; the only one who can fully fulfill our longing.
We believe disciples follow Jesus, are changed by Jesus, and join Jesus in His mission of love. But when we are working in His mission, we often find that loving God and loving one another is easier than loving our neighbors, especially when fishing for people. Perceived failure in sharing the gospel well, both past and present, can be discouraging, but we trust that Jesus is not done with us. Just like Peter, we trust that the more we follow Jesus, the more He will change us to become effective fishers of people, giving us immense purpose and hope.
In the beginning, God gave us weeks. Then He gave us instructions on how to use them. When Jesus came, he gave us freedom to use weeks at our own discretion. The early church chose to gather on Sundays because Jesus came back to life on the first day of the week. On that day, he shared the good news with his disciples and they acknowledged that it was with great sacrifice that the gap between us and God was bridged. The same thing happened again a week later. Over 100,000 weeks later, the same thing is still happening.
When we, as Christians, recall the ways that we have failed to love one another, the conclusion of our self-assessment should always be that we are righteous, not condemned; Christ’s perfection has overcome our imperfection. And within this mercy and grace, we are free to love more and more. “Do so more and more” was Paul’s charge to the Thessalonians. What would his charge be to Denverites?
After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to the disciples, but Thomas was absent for this momentous event. He requested to see the physical body of the risen Jesus in order to believe, but his greater question wasn’t about receiving physical proof, it was about whether or not Jesus is God. He asked the same question that we and others have asked of Jesus for the last couple millennia: who are You to me? The answer: He is our Lord and God.
When we are discipled by listening directly to Jesus’ voice in Scripture, we can trust His wisdom as being inerrant because He perfectly embodied all the spiritual disciplines we aspire to have. In contrast, when we are discipled by listening to others, we should discern which particular spiritual disciplines God has empowered each one of them to have. Because, as fallen people, even as devout followers of Jesus, none of us embody them all.