Red Tree Church

The Church of Jesus is the hand and feet of Jesus destroying the kingdom of the curse and establishing the Kingdom of God on this earth. This happens externally (disciple-making) and internally (discipleship).

The church is God’s plan for redemption in this time and age. What an amazing privilege.

God promisses that you will have trouble in this life, but you can take heart and not be overcome with despair because he has overcome the world – remember you have the promise of heaven. In your trials, in the darkest of times of life, God has not abandoned you and is always at work even when you cannot see it.That your God can work all things – even the worst of things you’re experiencing for your good and his glory. With God your sorrows are not wasted.

Jesus is coming back and heaven will be forever! This is the hope of the gospel! Not just forgiveness now, but intimacy and connection forever!

What is the Kingdom of God? It is God’s authoritative reign his way. That is, it is God’s redeemed people living in perfect unity with him within his redeemed creation. Kingdom is merely an analogy because our Lord is like no earthly king. This is why the scripture uses so many similies for the kingdom.

The promises of God are as good as accomplished.

Jesus, the God-man, through his perfect, sinless life – through his death, burial, and resurrection fulfilled all of the requirements of the Law – requirements we could never fulfill. And he did this for us that through our faith in him it would be as if we fulfilled the requirements of the law ourselves.

God is so good and wants good for his creation, why does he need to make promises and covenants? Gen 3 is the why.

God exists. He made everything. He is good and he wants what is best for his creation.

The Hallelujah Psalms close out the Book of Psalms. This tells us that praise of the LORD is not so much about our life experience and circumstances but is about our faith - is about the object of our faith - in the unchanging character and nature of God.

Jesus is for you. Jesus is the ultimate expression of the present working protection of the Lord - he stepped into the mess of this cursed world and he saved us from Satan, sin, and death.

When God gives his children a revelation of the unbelievers eternal destiny compared to the believers, one;s heart is moved with compassion to be a witness. To remind fellow believers all that we have in Christ. To share with those who don’t believe the truth of God’s loving plan of redemption.

The gospel is the only hope of this text - only the present loving ministry of the Spirit can enable us to walk in real joy and repentance -

There is no shame in confession. God meets us in our confession with forgiveness and blessing.

We tend to think that waiting on God means to shut everything down until the LORD does something to change things. And there will be times in our lives when God wants us to pull away – to retreat – to remove distraction – to quiet ourselves down so we can hear his voice – to wait on him through prayer – wait for a word of guidance – to hear words of comfort, encouragement, and hope.But waiting on God, in its essence, means to trust Him, by continuing to live our lives by faith as the storm continues to rage all around us.

The present love of God overrides fear and anxiety of the present moment.

Central to all of our preaching, one theme, one thread that runs through God’s story from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is God’s plan of redemption as seen through his Son, Jesus Christ. Psalm 8 points to Jesus & the gospel.

You were made for a life in love with and connected to your creator. Seek that kind of life and you’ll experience the blessing and provision of God as well as the life you were built for.

We are commanded by Jesus himself to tell others about him, and make disciples.

Being a follower of Christ means you deny yourself and give of yourself to others. There is no room for individual faith, no room for selfishness, no room for self at all. We have died to ourselves and now live for others.

The day to day lived experience of the Christian life is simply relational connection to Jesus. Because of who he is and what he has done, our connection to him allows us to experience our salvation, grow in holiness, and join with him in his mission.

The Gospel is the absolute center of the Christian life. You never grow beyond it or graduation past it. Followers of Jesus must not forget the gospel of Jesus

As Jesus pours into you, he pours out of you - Our vision as a church is the simple idea that Jesus is the truly satisfying ‘cold drink of water’ of the human heart and it is only by turning to him again and again over and above the ‘drinks’ of the world that a person can be so fulfilled as to truly reach out and love and serve others beneficially.

Pastor Jim teaches from Acts 27:1-44 and asks, "How can we find peace, rest, and joy through the knowledge of God’s sovereignty while in the midst of turbulent waters - and still stay focused on Christ’s mission?"

The gospel is so very very good that whoever experiences it will want that good for everyone. Followers of Jesus want salvation for all peoples - period. The gospel is that good. Paul’s final words to Agrippa show the heart of the witness to Christ - we want everyone to have what we have - the gospel is so good it supercedes human lines in such a way that follower of Jesus desire the good of Jesus for literally everyone - enemies included.

God is in control. We can trust Him and seek Him and participate with Him in the work even when things are difficult. The big challenge of this text is that Paul had a clear understanding of his call and what his next steps of obedience were to be while still in Ephesus. (19:21) He was to go to Jerusalem and then go to Rome yet here he is in a prison in Caesarea - and the text tells us he’s trapped here for TWO years. Talk about God changing his plans. Yet, in this tragic situation, Paul gets the unique chance to preach the gospel to Felix and his wife for literal years, not his plan, but obviously God’s plan and Paul rolls with it.

God’s sovereign hand over our lives, our world and how his timing is always perfect. What we see is the continuous unfolding of God’s story of redemption of which our lives are a part.We are called to enter into the messy lives of others. This is our mission.Two reassuring gifts from God as we live for his purposes. One: Confidence he gives us in the midst of trials. Second: Confidence we have in the resurrection - both His and ours.

James and the elders responded to Paul’s report and the gift from the churches by praising God. Yet they also urged Paul to join with four Jewish Christians who were fulfilling their Nazirite vows and to pay for their required offerings. In effect, they were saying to Paul, “We can accept this gift from the churches and so identify ourselves openly with your Gentile mission, if you will join with these men and identify yourself openly with the nation.