Mechanicsville Church of Christ Audio

For many of us this time of year is hard, not because of those around our table, but because of the one (or more) who aren't. We've all lost loved ones that makes this time of year a little harder without their presence. I wish there was an easy answer, I wish I could tell you why, but I can't. Believe it or not, this kind of grief and sorrow is a key piece of the birth narrative of Jesus. Listen in as we talk about this odd part of the story and look to the God of all comfort for our pain. 

This week we look at those who God revealed to the significance of baby Jesus. Two individuals recognized Jesus as an infant as the Salvation of the Lord. How did they do that? And can we recognize Jesus to the degree they did? YES!! 

This week we take a closer look at the shepherds and we see the ministry of Jesus beginning right away the day he was born. We see similarities between our lives and the shepherds and an amazing truth about the character and nature of God. 

This week we begin a new series called Home for the Holidays. The holidays can bring lots of baggage and we're going to be looking at how scripture helps us navigate the struggles of this holiday season. We start by looking at Israel and their time exiled in Babylon. God calls them not to sit around and complain, but to seek the good of this new place they don't want to be. Talk about a hard command!! 

This week we are privledged to have Matt Lee, Executive Director of Psalm 82:3 Mission. He gives us an update about the ministry and what's happening in Liberia, and brings us an encouraging and challenging message from Philippians. 

This week we talk about what it means to be all in when it comes to our faith. We scratch the surface as we look ahead to changing our name to Grace Christian Church. We need people to be all in at our church, but most importantly in our faith. 

As Paul concludes his letter, he really emphasizes the importance to live out our faith. He encourages us as believers to pray, live wisely, and season our speech with grace. 

Paul seems to take a detour to further explain one point in particular. Paul looks at the most important relationship and roles we have in this life; husband, wife, marriage and family relationship and explains how we are to represent Christ. 

Today as we continue our series in Colossians we come to a passage we typically look at in superficial ways. The reality is many of us treat faith as superficial. We tend to think, as long as faith doesn't make me too uncomfortable or require too much from me then I'm good. But today Will challenge's us to go a little deeper and really let the Spirit of God into those aspects of faith we hesitate to give up. 

This week as we continue our look into the letter to the Church in Colossae, retired minister Mark Coffey shares with us how things and systems designed to bring us to the throne often become the very things we worship. We start chasing shadows of Christ rather than Christ himself. 

As we continue our study in Colossians we look at the implications Paul describes from the mystery revealed. The implications of Christ in us. Because we have recieved Christ Jesus, we are to walk in Him, be rooted in him, being built up in him, established in the faith, and abounding in gratitude. 

This week we look at the thesis of Paul's letter to the Church in Colossae. Everything else comes back to this one big idea and point. That Christ is supreme. Christ is over all. 

This week we begin a new series in the book of Colossians. We look at what Paul wants to tell the Church in Colossae when it comes to their faith and the false teaching they face. Paul begins by emphasizing the knowledge of the will of God in spiritual wisdom and understanding. 

This morning we continue our series as we look at the 3rd Chair. This chir is all about the suffering, servanthood, and sacrifice Christ calls his disciples to. It is not that we suffer, serve, and sacrifice in meaningless ways, but that our pursuit of becoming more like Jesus leads us to those things. This journey of following Jesus is a hard one, and for that reason many do not move beyond the 2nd chair. What about you? 

This week worship looked a bit different. This week we did not cancel church, we went to be the Church in our community! Our life groups met elsewhere and served our community in different ways. We are also blessed to participate with other churches as we united as the Church for our community in the name of Jesus! It was awesome!! 

This week, Josh Smith brings the word as he talks about the 2nd Chair. 

This week we continue our discipleship series by looking at where we all start our discipleship journey, the first chair. What we have to understand as disciples is what our role is with those in the first chair. Those in the first chair need followers of Christ willing to enter their world, ready and prepared to answer questions and talk about faith, and willing to be inconvienced. It sounds like a lot. It is. But this is what Christ calls us to. All from a motivation of love! Let us never miss the motivation of love. 

**We had some technical difficulties this week. We apologize for the audio quality and have fixed the issue for next week.**We are so excited to start a brand new series this week on discipleship. Dann Spader does a fantastic job of framing discipleship in 4 sections, or chairs. We will be using the basic framework for understanding this cricial piece of faith. Join us as we seek to be better disciples ourselves and make more disciples of Christ. 

There is no question we've been fed this lie by our culture to just be you. And we have taken that in the church and many of us believe it also. We put a Biblical spin on it, we believe we were created perfect in the image of God. But sin has such a grip of us and in this world, that God certainly did make us in his image, but have we ever been perfect? Was there even a moment we could say we were perfect? Or is that a lie we have believed for far too long? 

We have believed a lot of lies about forgiveness over the years. We've believed a lot of half truths and fancy sayings, but not Biblical truth about forgiveness and it's time we correct that. Forgivness and healing from whatever hurt you've experienced is found only in the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you hear about forgiveness and walls start going up rather than healing and hope, you've misunderstood forgiveness. Join us as we set the record straight! 

This week we look at how we've watered down our gatherings to minimalistic shadow of what God has called us to. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of break, and prayer. And we show up and observe rather than being active participants in what God has called us to. 

There are a lot of things we believe that Jesus, or Scripture never says. Follow your heart is a popular suggest especially for graduates. But Scripture actually says the opposite. The heart is decietful and we are to guard our heart!!

Too often we fall into traps of believing Jesus said things he never actually said. Most of the time it's a simple misunderstanding or taking scripture out of context. But it leads to developing beliefs, doctrines, and theologies that aren't true or accurate. Through this series we look at a few of them. Beginning is this thought that Jesus just wants us to be happy. 

This week we practice some generosity by talking about money. More specifically we talk about tithing and giving back to God a portion of what he's given us first before anything else. This practice and habit of tithing is foundational for making sure God stays a priority in our lives. It's not about the money. God doesn't need our money. We need to give in order to keep God a priority in our lives. 

As we strive for generosity in our lives, a key aspect is remembering God's generosity. Israel found themselves in tough places because they forgot the Lord and what He had done for them. May we not forget the Lord's goodness and may we pass along the stories of what God has done in our lives. 

When we talk about generosity, most of us think money. Generosity though describes the extent to which we do a lot of things. We can have generous kindness, generous forgiveness, generous compassion, generous with our time, and be generous with out giving. We are called as disciples to be people of generosity. So let's be generous! 

Regardless of where you go to church, there is an expectation we have as Christians. This expectation hasn't changed since the beginning of the church and will not till Christ returns. The same expectations Jesus had of his disciples then is the same expectation he has of us today. We have a hard time in America really understanding and living this out. Join us today as we dive into what Jesus expects of his followers. 

We recongize church membership is not something we see in scripture. But there are pieces of being part of the Church that are important in the local church. Like many things, membership has changed a lot over time. Being an active member in a local church is an important aspect of faith. 

This week we continue our Who I am series as we look at the role and function of deacons. We start with the Biblical text and then see how it plays out in our church specifically. 

This week we began a brand new series looking at the different roles and how they play out in our local church specifically. 

This Resurrection Sunday we wrap up our series on Grace as we look at the tensions revealed this special weekend. 

This week we look at a difficult aspect of grace; forgiveness. Some people have really hurt us and the last thing we want to do is forgive them. Once we realize the extent of God's forgiveness for us, we find it easier to forgive others. 

Sometimes people make life difficult. However, grace is for all people. There are no levels of grace, some grace for these people, more or less for other people. Grace upon grace for all people. Grace brings us together and unifies us all in powerful ways. All for a common purpose of reaching an unbelieving world. 

One of the hardest and messiest parts of grace is how it often seems to be delayed. It seems like sometimes God has promised grace and it's nowhere to be found. But what we see today is that time always reveals grace. Even when grace seems delayed, time always shows us where God was and reveals God's grace! 

This week we begin a brand new series talking about grace. Grace is incredibly central to the gospel, yet how many of us know what real grace is? Join us as we explore grace together. 

As we wrap up our series through Judges, we come to arguably the worst stories in all of scripture. And then the book ends. Judges ends with no answers and seemingly no hope. But Judges is simply a chapter within scripture. Listen in as we see how God moves and works in our darkest moments. And join us as we see how God is still moving and working. 

This week we see Micah representing how far Israel has falled away from God. He sees God as useful rather than beautiful and then finds out how he is left with nothing. 

This week, Rich Pannell reminds us of the importance of relationships. We see Samson butcher relationships over and over again. With his parents, his friends, and with women. Rich reminds us of our born with calling to be in relationship with Jesus. He died on the cross so all would call on his name and be saved. 

This week we finish up Gideon and see a shift in Israel's problems from outside to within. The nations around Israel used to be Israel's greatest problem, but now their greatest problems are from within. Their own selfishness, pride, and completely turning away from God. The biggest downfall we see of Israel is that they have allowed the cultures around them and religions around them influence their understanding of God and their relationship with God. 

This week we look at the battle between Israel and Midian. Sometimes God brings us to a postion of weakness before he uses us so he gets the credit and glory. 

This week we look at the beginning part of Gideon's life when God calls him to save Israel from the hand of Midian. We see that God calls Gideon, not as he is, timid and scared, but as God is making him into, a mighty man of valor. Trusting in God is not easy, but sometimes that's all we have. 

This week we continue our Broken Heroes series as we look at Deborah and Barak. What we see is how God has gifted women for leadership roles in the church and how when men fail to lead, people suffer. Thank God there is grace to get back to using the gifts God has given us. 

The first broken hero we look at in the book of Judges is Ehud. Ehud's weakness became an invitation for God's strength. We see that God cares much more about our avalibility than our ability. 

This week we begin a brand new sermon series through the book of Judges. We begin by looking at the nation of Israel after the death of Joshua and get a glimpse at the Israel God intended. But it doesn't last long. 

This week we look at the final Gospel in our come to worship series. This week we look at Mark and how Mark begins his Gospel and introduces the character of Jesus. Mark doesn't start with his birth, he starts with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What's the difference? Listen to find out! 

As we continue our Christmas series, we look at how Luke introduces the Christ child in his gospel account. We see how Luke focuses on the birth announcement of John and Jesus to their parents and how God blesses those who believe him. 

This week we continue our Christmas series called Come to Worship as we look at how the Gospel writers introduced Jesus. Each needed to choose a beginning place and it speaks volumes to how the writers are portraying Jesus. This week we look at Matthew as he brings out the humanity and geneology of Jesus throughout Old Testament scriptures. 

This week we begin our Christmas series called Come to Worship as we look at how the Gospel writers introduced Jesus. Each needed to choose a beginning place and it speaks volumes to how the writers are portraying Jesus. This week we look at John and how John begins in the beginning of time focusing on Jesus' divinity. 

This week leading up to thanksgiving, we talk about what gratitude and what it means to truly be grateful. 

On top of COVID, this year has been a year of division and pursuit of justice. This week we dive into Biblical justice and God's heart for justice in this world. There is arguably nothing closer to the heart of God then justice. 

This week we continue our look at the new vision, Love, Grow, Serve. Today we highlight serve and what it really means to serve and what it means as a part of our vision.