Fountain City KC

There's an underlying angst we all feel, Christian or not, wondering if we will be ok. As Christians, we often experience an additional kind of angst, driven more from insecurities in our faith. Do you ever find yourself worrying if you are ok with God, or worrying if one day you're going to do something that causes him to reject you? As Paul closes this amazing chapter, he gives us one of the most powerful assurances: that in Christ, everything will be ok and we have nothing to fear.

These verses in Romans 8 can feel like standing on a mountain summit overlooking a vista that leaves you at a loss for words. At the center of this passage are two truths: God's sovereignty and our assurance in Christ. When they are put together, the promise God makes is one that will change how we both see our lives and live our lives. No matter you current circumstances, no matter your failures, no matter your limitations, in Christ, God has given you life as good as it gets.

Guest Speaker Dave Robinson

There are many claims in our Christian faith that are mysterious. We know they're true, but we can't understand how they "work". One of these involves the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Another might be the topic of prayer. As the Apostle Paul continues to list all the ways the Holy Spirit impacts our lives, he'll show us that not only does the Holy Spirit help us and empower our prayers, the Holy Spirit also prays for us in ways we could never pray for ourselves.

We live in perhaps the most affluent, comfortable, and free society in history.  And yet, it is demonstrably clear that people are more hopeless than ever before. Why is that?  And more to the point, what is hope, and where does it come from? As we continue our study, the Apostle Paul will not only answer our questions, but will again connect our hearts to the indescribably good news of Jesus and the hope we have in him.

One of the greatest struggles we experience in life is figuring out who we are. What's our identity? To answer this question we might look at our born qualities: our family of origin, our abilities, our physical traits. Or we might look to our earned qualities: our education, profession, relationships. How often do we first look to what God says? In Christ, God gives us an identity that should come before any other and He wants us to take hold of our identity as His child.

In this passage, the Apostle Paul lays out a description of life that can resemble Charles Dickens' famous opening line in A Tale of Two Cities, only in Romans 8:1-11, Paul might say, "It was the best of lives, it was the worst of lives." Paul will show us there is one of two ways, one of two types of Existence we can choose to live. What we'll see this week is that Jesus wants us to take hold of the freedom He's given us through His Spirit.

A well known statement in the Bible says that “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” The reality is faith can be hard. Many people struggle to believe that something is true; we doubt, we question. On this Resurrection Sunday, Jesus will meet us here, in belief and doubt. He wants to meet us to move us; to move beyond our doubt to solid, biblical faith and through an encounter with Thomas, that's just what He'll do.

Perhaps one of the more impressive and intimidating things we see in others is when they share their faith in Jesus. We might think, 'how do they do that', or 'where do they get the courage?' As we conclude our sermon series on Gospel Renewal from the inside out, we'll see that the secret in sharing our faith is not guilt or goals or fear, but joy. It's joy that comes from a heart changed by grace. Experiencing deep, transformative grace leads to joyful witness to the giver of that grace.

One of the most stark contrasts in our Christian faith is between self-righteousness and grace. Nothing causes us to miss Jesus more than self-righteousness, and nothing brings us deeper into the rest Jesus gives than receiving his grace. Through this amazing parable we will see that core to the work Jesus wants to do in our lives is uproot self-righteousness from our heart and fill it in with grace, so that we can rest in the gospel.

One of the most challenging questions of the Christian life is: how does our behavior fit in? It's so easy to begin to wonder one of two things: is God's love for me dependent on what I do, or, is what I do irrelevant and makes no difference in my life with God? Through this familiar and amazing passage, we'll see that the key is grace. Grace is free: it comes to us in spite of what we do. But to be God's grace, it also has a powerful effect. So we'll see that a saved life is a changed life. 

One of the most difficult actions of the Christian faith is forgiveness. In our culture, forgiveness can be spoken of as a mistake. In our personal lives, the thought of forgiving those who have hurt us can feel impossible and unjust. As we continue looking into the renewing work that Jesus does in those who trust and follow him, we'll see that forgiveness is in the center. In fact, what Jesus wants us to understand is that he is changing our hearts so we can forgive others as He has forgiven us.

The Good Samaritan is a parable that is familiar to nearly everyone, at least by name. Because of that familiarity, it's easy to lose sight of the revolutionary message Jesus intends it to have.  As we continue to look at how, through the gospel, Jesus renews us and our hearts, we'll see that He also brings His renewing grace to those around us as we begin to love others as He has loved us.

Last week, as we dove into gospel renewal, we saw that Jesus renews us from the inside out by first changing what we treasure in life, to be him. This Sunday, we are going to press WHY this is so hard. Jesus is going to place his finger on the main thing that keeps us from putting him first so that he can uproot it and give us what is infinitely better. 

One of Jesus' favorite questions to ask was "What do you want me to do for you?" If we could hear Jesus ask us that question, how would we answer? Through Jesus, God is moving this broken, fallen world to a glorious new creation: gospel renewal. A second question to consider is, how does this gospel reality go from the academic to something personally meaningful? It happens when we see that this renewal is something Jesus is doing in us right now and he begins by focusing on what we love.

One of the great metaphors for life is a journey and part of any journey, definitely part of our lives, is the reality that there are many struggles we must endure. Peter has made clear that sometimes we encounter these struggles because we are Christians. As we finish this letter, Peter's final word is a word of encouragement that we can and will endure all struggles by standing in grace. 

Next week, the Kansas City Chiefs will play in their third straight Super Bowl, a remarkable achievement. It makes you wonder what makes some teams or businesses so successful? What is it that makes them able to push through adversity and be a place where people want to be? What about a church? What makes one healthy and vibrant? The key Peter will show us is that a healthy church is full of people asking, "what can I give," not, "what can I get."

In our culture anything that feels like suffering is typically seen as detracting from the life that will allow "you to be you". The Apostle Peter shows us that as a Christian, suffering is likely, expected even. If I suffer as a Christian, is our culture's assessment right? Am I wasting my life? Have I been duped? Peter's answer to these questions will not only help us rightly understand suffering, but help us see it as a blessing that leads us closer to God.

If what Peter says is right, Christians ought to expect suffering, but why would we add that to all the other heartbreak and hardships we face? As Peter transitions toward his closing thoughts, he reminds us of the center of our hope. This hope is not only comforting for us in times of difficulty, but, what's more, it recalibrates how we relate to one another in our ordinary lives -- beginning first in our churches and spreading out to our families, friends, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

There's something about the start of a New Year, the feel of it, that connects pretty easily with our Christian faith. A New Year can feel as though it offers us a new beginning, an opportunity for change, something different. As we return to Peter's letter this Sunday, he will draw a sharp connection between that New Year feeling and the call of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus calls us into a new life. The question Peter will put before us all this morning is are you owning that new life?

This past season was likely filled with warm relationships, joy, and memories. Now, this week or the next, life gets back to normal for most of us. Real, everyday life is often hard. It might be filled by disease, job loss, or unresolved conflict you have to deal with. Real life can make the joy of the gospel seem only like a seasonal thing. As we'll see in this week, the advent season is of course meant to bless us now, but even more so, to point to us the ultimate joy and peace that awaits. 

This Sunday will be the fourth week of Advent. Christmas is just days away! As the final preparations are made and excitement levels rise, a question worth considering is what is it about this season and holiday that make it such a special and happy time? The simple answer that we'll explore this week is that Christ has come and Christ changes everything.

This Advent season we've been tracing the promise of God running through the whole of Scripture: that He will send One to overcome our sorrow and shame. But a nagging question hanging over this promise is who is it for? Through this beautiful passage, God will make it very clear that He sends the promised One for all of us, and He invites us all to respond with joyful worship.

At the heart of the Advent season is a promise about Jesus. But promises are only valuable if they're kept; if we put our hope in a promise, but that promise is broken, that can feel unbearable.  It would be better to not trust that kind of promise to begin with. A lot of us experience our relationship with God that way, even in Advent. Through this passage, God will show us that we can have complete comfort in his promises because we know he will always keep them. 

Life is full of promises. Promises offer confidence about the future; they offer us hope. In our modern era, we are promised that through human achievement, we'll all reach a utopian life together. The Advent season reminds us of the truth that there is only one grand promise that will actually be fulfilled. It's the ancient promise found in this all important passage, the promise that found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and the only promise you should bank your life on.

Living faithfully in everyday life has been, is now, and will be nuanced and complex. So, how does Peter expect us to discern what is good for us to do? How are we to be devoted to God but also mindful of our neighbor? Lastly, who has the final say on who we are and what we've done? Was any of it worth it? In 1 Peter 3:13-22, the Apostle Peter lifts our eyes to the great hope we have in every circumstance as we are in Christ so too do we share in his victory.

If you could ask Jesus to do one thing what would you ask Him to do? Most of us would ask Jesus to bring some kind of peace or healing in our lives. Part of the good news of the gospel is that Jesus can and will bring His renewing power to us. What can be lost on us is how He does that. Through this passage we will see that Jesus renews things not primarily through other-worldly signs and wonders, but by working in and through His disciples as we live a new kind of life: a cross-shaped life.

One of the most glorious and yet most difficult relationships in life is marriage. Some people, because of the difficulty, have grown jaded and view marriage as a mistake to be avoided. As a disciple of Jesus, how does following him make any difference in marriage? The answer, even though it's hard to believe, is that it makes all the difference. That's because discipleship to Jesus develops a cross-shaped life which transforms marriage from a power struggle to a relationship of sacrificial love.

One of the challenges of understanding the Bible comes from translating ancient customs into modern life. But a reality that transcends time and culture is one that Peter introduced to us last week: life under authority. That theme continues this week but with a more everyday focus, and a more life-shaping outcome. How does being a disciple of Jesus shape how we live under authority, even under unjust authority? Peter will show us that our discipleship to Jesus will develop a cross-shaped life.

Politics and government might be the most heated and charged topic of our shared life today. It's one of the most important, it's one of the most difficult, and it's definitely one we as Christians need to understand in the context and teaching of God's Word. Of all that Scripture says, there isn't much that directly or explicitly speaks to government and our life as Christians under it. This passage in 1 Peter is one of the clearest and most direct teachings.

A hallmark of the Christian life is joy; a contented, happy, exuberant sense of being. Usually when we think of joy, we think of momentous occasions or experiences that call for celebration. But the unique and hard-to-believe thing about Christian joy is that it is also found in somber, distressing, and even sad moments. The big question is, why? How? As Peter will show us, it has everything to do with the future that comes after those times, as well as the one who has secured that future for us.

It's become cliché to say that we are living in a unique time in history nationally and globally, but that's because it's true. We live in confusing, changing, and tense times. With so much change and uncertainty, how do we live into our Christian life faithfully? Answering this question is one of Peter's highest aims with his letter and from the beginning, we see that it all starts with our identity: understanding and owning who we are in Christ. 

Guest Speaker Julien de Leiris. These two brief verses are some of the most powerful in all the Bible.  They have not only changed lives, but have literally sparked a world-changing movement.  Their focus is the gospel, a message we hear and celebrate often.  And that's because in the gospel, there is power, there is the righteousness of God, and there is life of faith. 

Water is one of the Bible's dominant themes and images.  Water cleanses, renews, wipes away.  It also quenches.  In the middle of his ministry, Jesus said something about water that helps us understand who he is and what he wants to do in our lives.  It also helps us understand how Jesus wants us to see his vision for us as disciples.  As his disciples, we are sent into the world with living water that only Jesus can give. 

Have you ever asked yourself, what's the point of following Jesus? What is the point of discipleship? Very smart people have said that in any great endeavor we should start with the end in mind. This week we'll look into the end, the goal, the telos of discipleship. As we do, we'll see that Jesus has a very clear goal in mind, and that goal not only shapes our day-to-day faith but how we, as his disciples, go about our calling of making disciples like he did.

The final words that someone speaks carry a special kind of importance. In this passage, we'll hear afresh Jesus's final words to us: Go and make disciples. As we consider these words, two questions will rise to the top: Who is a disciple, and how do we make one? What Jesus wants us to see is something intensely personal that involves us all: a disciple is someone who has bound their life to Jesus and helps others do the same.

Any talk of discipleship must always begin in one place, with Jesus. The only reason we talk about being and making believers, followers and learners of Jesus, is because of who Jesus is. And if we don't know who Jesus is, then we'll never properly understand what it means for us to be his disciples. This week, from John's gospel, one brief statement from the mouth of Jesus will help us see him with utmost clarity, and with that vision, see that he is worthy of our entire life.

Our church's vision is that we would be a Christ centered church making and sending disciples in this generation and the next. At the heart of that calling is a truth that is found in the heart of God, something that Jesus makes very plain and powerful in the parables of this passage, and something that will refresh and energize us: no matter how far from God we might be, he seeks us, saves us, and celebrates our relationship with him. 

Guest Speaker Ian Johnston

Guest Speaker Doug Karst

Guest speaker Dave Robinson - Luke 7:36-50 -- Extravagant Love 

When we talk about Christianity or Jesus or the mission of the church, what should be our leading edge, our top priority, what we see as most important? Our passage is going to help us see there's one thing that rises to the top: who do we say Jesus is?

Christian leaders and pastors from several denominations recently have gathered to discern answers to difficult questions about how we, as Christians, should navigate the time and culture in which we live; and they'll all tell you: it's hard. As a Christian, how do you faithfully and authentically be who you have been called to be in Christ, particularly in a time and place where you may not easily fit? This passage will help us see the two key elements to every answer: Truth & Grace.

A frightening reality of life is that at any moment we could find ourselves in the midst of a tragic event and that thought can leading us to wonder if we'd make it through. As a Christian we might ask, could I still hold fast to Jesus? If you faced the worst, what would give you hope, strength, help in the midst of it? Our passage is going to lead us to the answer we all want to hear: YES, you will. Because nothing can overcome God's promise and his grace. 

As a Christian, negativity toward our faith can be intimidating and it can create confusion or doubt. That's understandable, but through this passage God wants us to see the truth of the matter; to be reminded of the reason why we're called to be a Christ centered church making and sending disciples in the generation and the next. That's because the gospel is not a problem but the power of God for salvation for all who will believe. 

All of us have difficult seasons in our lives and when we do, our natural reaction is to look to God and ask for his help. There are many reasons we do that, one of them is because God has made promises to us that we turn to in hard times. But what do we do when we feel like God has forgotten about us or his promises? How are we supposed to handle that? This passage will show us that we can wait on God with confidence because we know God will always fulfill his promises. 

Guest Speaker Adam Jones. Whether at school or the workplace, we've probably experienced cliques, polarizing perspectives, and favoritism. But what happens when these are present within our faith community? Writing to a church crippled by divisions, open sin issues, and theological confusion, Paul addresses the heart of the matter while teaching important principles for our life together. 

When you take inventory of the world today, our nation today, maybe your family today, how confident are you in our leadership's ability, your boss's ability, or your ability to lead things to a good end? How confident are you that they or you will identify what is best, choose to pursue it, and have the capability to achieve it? The passage this week will remind us that when we ask these questions of God, everything changes. And that's good news.

For many of us, a nightmare situation we dread is that we'll wake up one day, when our life is coming to an end, and realize we've wasted our whole life. How can we have any confidence that our lives will have any real meaning or lasting impact? This week's passage will show us that a life that follows Jesus is a life full of meaning. So, we can live confidently and with courage because we know that in Christ, none our life will be a waste.

When I ask people what's the one thing they'd want to ask Jesus to do in and around their life, the most popular answer is make peace. This passage will ask us to consider if there is ever anything we should put ahead of peace and the answer will be, "Yes''. As much as we want peace, and as much as Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, Jesus also wants us to pursue truth; to be truth-tellers. That's because it's more loving to give people the truth of Jesus than a false peace.

A question I've been asking people for months is, "If you could ask Jesus to do one thing in your life, your family, your neighborhood, what would it be?" The one thing I've heard the most is the desire for peace; the desire for wholeness, rest, health, rightness. In a time like ours, that can feel pretty far-fetched, but it's not. Our passage this week will affirm our desire for peace, show us where we can find it, and also show us we each are the ones Jesus might use to make it.