Central Community Church | Sermon Audio

1 Timothy 2:1-8 Corporate prayer is an important means of grace because through it God grows our relationship with Him through Christ, He grows our relationships with other Christians, and He leads people to salvation in the name of Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:1-8 Corporate prayer is a means of grace because it is a God-given way for the Church to seek Him together, experience His presence, express unity, and receive spiritual blessing through shared dependence and intercession. While personal prayer is vital, praying together uniquely builds up the Church, invites God’s power and presence in a collective way, and unifies us around Christ’s mission to seek and to save the lost.

1 Timothy 2:1-8 Corporate prayer is a means of grace because it is a God-given way for the church to seek Him together, experience His presence, express unity, and receive spiritual blessing through shared dependence and intercession. While personal prayer is vital, praying together uniquely builds up the church, invites God’s power and presence in a collective way, and unifies us with Jesus in the advancement of the gospel.

Matthew 6:5–8 This morning we look at Jesus’ teaching on personal prayer from Matthew 6:5–8. Far from being a performance, prayer is a seemingly ordinary practice that draws us into an honest, dependent, and life changing relationship with God. Jesus teaches us how to pray sincerely, trust God’s guidance, and experience the transforming grace that comes from simply showing up and speaking from the heart.

Matthew 6:5-8 For the atheist prayer is a meaningless religious chore with no positive benefit or purpose. However, for the follower of Christ, prayer is an incredible privilege that has benefits both in this life and the one to come! Prayer is an incredible opportunity because through Jesus we have access to a good God whose ear is always attentive to His children’s petitions and praises.

Matthew 6:5-8 Most of us were never taught how to communicate, whether with a spouse, a parent, or even with God, and have spent our lives learning by trial and error. Before the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” there was no clear instruction on how to speak with God: Should we pray aloud or silently? Eyes open or closed? Kneeling or standing? The questions are endless. Yet prayer was never meant to be a ritual to perfect, but a relationship to deepen. In this message, we’ll explore what God says about prayer, look at practical ways to apply it, and then put it into practice together, discovering that true prayer is not performance but personal dialogue with a God who listens and rewards the sincere heart.

1 Peter 4:8-11 Fellowship is considered an ordinary means of grace because God uses the relationships within the body of Christ to strengthen, encourage, and sanctify believers through the gospel. The Christian life demands community. We need each other. “One another” appears 100 times in the New Testament and approximately 60 of those occurrences are specific commands teaching us how (and how not to) relate to one another. God has ordained for the church to be the kind of community that “one anothers” well!

1 Peter 4:8-11 We live in a world starved for community. As believers we often take for granted the extraordinary grace that God has provided in and through Christian community - our fellowship. Like vital signs that indicate a healthy body, love, hospitality, and selfless service are indicators of a body that manifests and witnesses grace to one another and a watching world. In the end, the goal of Christian Community is to love, embrace, and serve one another all to the glory of God.

1 Peter 4:8-11 We can easily take for granted the power the Christian community around us helps us persevere and flourish along the path of sanctification. As we experience the love of Christ through mutual forgiveness, the inclusion of Christ through intentional hospitality, and the hands of Christ in self-sacrificial service we are transformed. The ordinary means of grace in Christian community will create an immovable and faithful church with a beautiful apologetic to the world.

In our continuing series ‘The Ordinary Path to Extraordinary Grace’ we discover a beautiful purpose of the local church; The Purpose of Discipleship. The church is not a building with a street address but rather the group of people who meet together to worship, learn, love and serve. All the ordinances and practices within the local church are part of the discipleship process. We are discipled so that we can disciple others.

Ephesians 4:11-16 The church is designed to be a body made up of many members who build one another up into maturity and the fullness of Christ. We are also called to imitate others who are following Christ and disciple others in such a way that they also can disciple others.

Ephesians 4:11-16 The primary context for discipleship is the local church. It is the primary place that God desires to shape and form His people more and more into the image of His Son Jesus. For this reason, the local church is an ordinary yet extraordinary means of grace.

Colossians 3:15-17 lists 3 different ways that God pours out his grace upon followers of Christ as the church gathers corporately. Each one of these is an opportunity for thankfulness and a means of grace that should point us closer to Christ.

Colossians 3:15-17 When we consider all the means of grace Jesus has given to His Church, corporate worship may be the most significant. Through it, we participate together in every other means of grace as the gathered body of Christ. As a result, our spiritual health is deeply shaped by how fully or how little we engage in corporate worship.

Colossians 3:15-17 The church gathering is the place where God has determined to regularly and routinely meets His people through the ordinary means of grace of preaching, the ordinances, singing, prayer, and Christian fellowship. Not only is God honoured when we gather to worship Him, our souls desperately need the weekly rhythm of corporate worship and He gladly nourishes our souls with His grace.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 Preaching the Word of the Living God is the pinnacle of the means of grace because it is through God’s Word that Christ is most visibly displayed to the Church. In biblical preaching, a congregation encounters the living Christ and what glorious grace that is! We find in Scripture both the explanation of what true preaching is and the effects that faithful preaching produces as the Holy Spirit mediates God’s grace to us. It is imperative that we take the charge of gospel preaching seriously in our churches because only the Word can give spiritual life to the hearer. God graciously uses the preached Word to call the lost and grow the found. It is grace that saves and grace that sanctifies. This grace comes to us as we hear and receive the Word by faith.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 Of all the means of grace, preaching may be the most mundane. Who likes to sit for 40 minutes and listen to someone talk? Today, explore why God values preaching so much, and how you can experience the transformative glory of Jesus through the preaching of Scripture.

In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Paul reminds us of the simple but powerful call to “preach the Word.” When we gather to hear God’s Word proclaimed, something real happens: faith is awakened, our souls are fed, our lives are shaped in holiness, and Christ is lifted high. This sermon is an invitation to see preaching not as routine, but as one of the ways God personally meets us with His grace.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Communion (the Lord’s Supper), instituted by Jesus, is an ordinary means of grace because it is a regular, God-ordained, tangible practice through which Christ spiritually nourishes, strengthens, and assures His people by the power of the Holy Spirit. By participating, our faith is deepened, we are sustained, and our hope in Christ solidifies as we get a foretaste of glory.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Communion can easily become a repeated ritual where the Christian shares a small meal of bread and juice, but doesn’t think much more of it. However, Scripture reveals that there is so much more to the Lord’s Supper! Communion is a very real, physical, participatory reminder of the Gospel and the union God desires us to have with Christ and His church.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 The Lord’s Supper is one of the most widely practiced but least understood aspects of the Christian faith. Too often, it’s treated as a quick ritual before the bread and cup are passed, rather than the profound means of grace God intends. Throughout church history, believers and skeptics alike have debated its significance, practice, and meaning, and even today, many remain confused. This morning, we’ll open God’s Word to discover the true beauty of the Lord’s Supper. Why do we do this? Why bread and wine (or juice)? Who should partake and when should we abstain? Most importantly, what gift has God placed in our hands through this sacred meal? Join us as we uncover the depth, joy, and grace found at the Lord’s table.

Acts 2:37-41 Since the very first days of church baptism has been a highly important and incredibly powerful public demonstration of your death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus. What makes baptism so powerful is simple. It serves as an expression of your faith, physically demonstrates your union with Jesus, and is sign of your newness of life in Christ.

Acts 2:37-41 From the start of the church in Acts 2 faith and baptism have been intertwined. A tangible evidence of God’s grace, Baptism serves as an outward witness of an inner transformation by God through Christ. Not only does it serve as a means whereby commitment to Christ is fortified, it also serves as a witness to both the Body of Christ and the world of the powerful work of Christ.

Acts 2:37-41 You would be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful and powerful practice in the Christian Church than the act of baptism. The ordinance is a means of grace because it is a tangible sign of the gospel (plunged under the cleansing waters signifies burial and death to sin and coming up out of the water signifies resurrection life) and displays obedience and surrender to Jesus who modelled and commands us to be baptized.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 Some regard the practice of Bible reading as a dull and dreaded chore. Nevertheless, the Bible is an incredible book that can be more captivating than the best JRR Tolkien or JK Rowling page turner. The Bible is unlike any other book in that it’s inspired by God and reveals in authoritative ways who God is through the person of Jesus. In this way reading the Bible is one of the primary means in which God pours out His grace upon us.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 Reading the Bible is a means of grace. Through it, God speaks directly to His people – revealing Himself, nourishing faith, renewing the mind, and transforming lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is not just information; it is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and God uses it as a primary channel of His sustaining, sanctifying grace – and you will be blessed by reading it & keeping it!

2 Timothy 3:14-17 Reading the Bible is a means of grace because through it God speaks directly to His people—revealing Himself, nourishing faith, renewing the mind, and transforming lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is not just information; God uses it as a primary channel for transformation through saving, sustaining, sanctifying grace.

Acts 2:42-47 From a young age, our culture tries to tell us that newer is better, and that we always need to have the next best thing. The bible teaches us that this is actually not the case. In our new sermon series titled “The Ordinary Path to Extraordinary Grace”, we will unpack the God-ordained means, being prayer, the Bible, church, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, that God uses to strengthen, nourish, and bless His people. As we enter a new ministry year, this series will challenge us to rally around these same means of grace, confident that God can do extraordinary things through our ordinary faithfulness.

Acts 2:42-47 Practicing rudimentary skills can seem ordinary and boring, but in the long term such practice leads to excellence. In the Christian faith, God has provided for Christ followers a number of relatively ordinary “means of grace.” These means can seem dull and ordinary, but through devoted practice Christ followers are able to experience in growing fashion the extraordinary grace of God.

Acts 2:37-47 We have this amazing, reliable, extraordinary grace – salvation & freedom in Christ ... which we often want to experience & grow in via extraordinary means rather than the ordinary. Because ordinary is boring. But the ordinary ways are the primary ways that God has chosen for us to experience His grace, to deepen our spiritual understanding, and point others to Jesus. All the rest (the signs, the wonders, the miracles), while extremely important (and still exist!), are not the foundational aspects of our faith.

Acts 2:41-42 It seems that we are hard-wired to assume that newer is better and that the way to a flourishing life is kept secret. But God, in His kindness, makes His grace and spiritual growth accessible through God-ordained ways He has revealed to us, namely, through His Word, prayer, the Church, and the ordinances. This sermon gives an introductory overview to the ordinary means of grace.

Nehemiah 13 Why would anyone want to go back to their former life of sin, misery, loneliness, sadness and lack of meaning? It’s absurd! And yet it happens to us constantly. But today we’ll learn that even when it is very easy to go back to your old self, God has given us precious tools to persevere in His ways. We’ll explore our commitment, zeal, passion for the Lord and no turning back to the old ways.

In Nehemiah 13, we see God’s people drifting into compromise, forgetting His Word, and failing to remain faithful. Yet even in their failures, we’re reminded of our desperate need for a Saviour who can do what we cannot. That Saviour is Jesus Christ, who not only restores what is broken but also gives us lasting hope and victory through His death and resurrection.

Nehemiah 13 Sometimes the “path to renewal” is not as easy. We easily “get off track” and begin to wander. One of the keys to renewal ... revival ... is getting “back on track” and recommitting to follow the Lord once again.

1 John 4:19-21 Jesus commands that his people love one another as God has loved them. We follow the example of Jesus, showing self-sacrificial love to those around us in the church as a compelling, visible witness to the watching world of what God’s love is like.

Nehemiah 8 Revival is a work of God whereby many who are spiritually indifferent are awakened either to new life or to a fresh fervor and renewed commitment to their Saviour. The Spirit of God accomplishes this work of renewal when the people of God return to the Word of God giving the Scriptures their rightful place in the gathering and in their own lives. God blesses the church that honours his Word. We must learn the Scriptures, love the Scriptures, and live the Scriptures in order that revival might come to our church and city in these days.

Nehemiah 8 shows us how God’s people can be renewed through God’s Word.

Nehemiah 8 shows us how God’s people can be renewed through God’s Word.

1 Peter 5:1-4 God designed the church to function in a way that shows his glory. While we sometimes assume that means we should have less structure, God gives the church structure so that it can thrive and share the message of Jesus effectively. Every Christian has a part to play in how God designed the church to function for his glory.

Nehemiah 4 Opposition to the work of God’s Kingdom is nothing new. As we experience opposition, it is essential to know what to expect & how to handle it.

Nehemiah 4 The image of a sword and trowel are a helpful image for Christian ministry. With the trowel we build and with the sword we defend. Thankfully, we are not left on our own in this work; Jesus said He would build His church and has already secured the victory of sin, Satan, and death.

Nehemiah 2:1-20 We all want God to do something meaningful with our lives and the waiting is often the most difficult part. But what are you doing during the “in-between” time? Do you sit back after you pray for it once? Or do you constantly bring your requests before God trusting in faith that He will answer in His timing? Frequent prayer will prepare you for that moment when God answers because prayer doesn’t change God, it changes you.

Nehemiah 2 We all want God to do something meaningful with our lives and the waiting is often the most difficult part. But what are you doing during the “in-between” time? Do you sit back after you pray for it once? Or do you constantly bring your requests before God trusting in faith that He will answer in His timing? Frequent prayer will prepare you for that moment when God answers because prayer doesn’t change God, it changes you.

Nehemiah 2:1-20 Have you ever sensed God leading you to do something that terrified you because it was so much bigger than you? Nehemiah did, and his response is both inspiring and instructive. Fuelled by earnest prayer, Nehemiah stepped out in bold faith, followed God’s promptings and encountered great success because God’s hand was on him.

John 17:13-18 God both gathers and scatters his church. He sends his people out into the world to go with the joy of the gospel to all people. Living holy lives we are to sent to proclaim this good news in all the nations.