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Send us a textWhat makes Christianity… Christianity? How do you spot a Christian? In this foundational episode, we explore the non-negotiables of our faith through the lens of the Nicene Creed - the ancient “guardrail” that has protected orthodox belief for nearly 2,000 years. We'll unpack: • Why the Nicene Creed matters today • How early church leaders defended core Christian truths • Ancient heresies and their modern counterparts • Tools for recognizing authentic Christian teaching From Arianism, Modalism, and Gnosticism to modern movements like Progressive Christianity and Oneness Pentecostalism, we'll examine how history's theological battles continue to shape our present conversations. Whether you're new to theology or a seasoned student of church history, this episode will equip you to understand and defend historic Christian faith. Join us for a journey through the foundational truths that have united believers across cultures and centuries. Learn why these ancient words still serve as our theological compass today. 

Times of purification and prayer amongst the people of God are how every Christian movement of revival and restoration has begun. This is also an essential process if we seriously want to see great change in our lives, our families and in our nations, and indeed if we are focussed on seeing a Great Harvest of people turning to Christ.   As we have already discovered in our current series on the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God wants to bless every generation.   He greatly blessed Abraham, with a long-promised son, with great wealth and promises of limitless descendants. He also blessed Isaac in so many ways and He would later greatly bless Jacob and his descendants. But to keep the blessing flowing, there were obstacles to overcome, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all discovered.   Genesis 26:18 talks of how Isaac unblocked his blessings, saying: ‘Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.'   Isaac was in big trouble. In a time of famine, he had gone to the land of the Philistines and God has blessed him greatly - so much so that locals became envious, and he had to move on. He did so - to Gerar, approximately 11 miles southeast of Gaza.   But he and his family had a very urgent need - not of land but of water. Wells that you could access water from were essential to their survival and prosperity. This is something our brothers and sisters in Burkina Faso also know which is why we have supported different projects over the years to sink wells in the world's third poorest country.  A well represents life, blocking up a well represents death. Now just as access to natural water is of the highest importance, so too the spiritual water of the Holy Spirit is vital to the health and growth of the Christian church.   As Christians we constantly need the streams of living water (the Holy Spirit, the life giver) that Jesus promised (John 7:38). Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we will remain thirsty and fruitless. As individuals and churches, we need to always remove anything that would block us from finding water from God.   This passage is very relevant to where we are today in the Christian church in the U.K and other nations as well as to many of us are personally. We see some key points:   1. Generations that have gone before us have dug life giving wells (Hebrews 12:1-3) 2. Enemies have blocked up the wells of a previous generation (Matthew 13:24-43)  3. Each generation needs to unblock old wells (Jeremiah 29:13; Hebrews 11:6; Isaiah 12:3)  Apply   1. Generations that have gone before us have dug life giving wells. Father Abraham had dug wells. Isaac had no need to re-invent the wheel, to dig fresh wells. Excellent wells had already been dug. In one sense much of the hard work had been done. Others had been this way before him. His father had learnt how to sink wells. Today we need to realise much ground has already been won. Battles for biblical truth, for political freedom of worship, for recognition of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. A century ago Pentecostal Christians were ridiculed for their emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Now today Spirit filled Christians and churches are at the forefront of global Christianity. For sure many great men and women of God gone before us: - John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, William Wilberforce, William and Catherine Booth, Corrie Ten Boom, Billy Graham…The list is endless: - Gladys Alyward, the pioneer missionary to China, Smith Wiggleworth, the Bradford plumber, Teddy Hodgson, who was martyred in Congo and our own pioneer founder, W.T.H. ‘Billy' Richards.   They have shown the way forward by faith, vision and action. In one sense they knew how to sink wells, they knew what worked, they knew how to tap into the blessing of God. We are part of a long line of heroes of faith and their lives and ministries should be a source of instruction and inspiration (Hebrews 12:1-3). In the UK and elsewhere, there are many families, churches, communities and institutions that continue to this day because of previous godly generations, including generations of believers in this church. You too personally may have a rich spiritual history where you can point to many times where you have experienced the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The wells of God have been sunk deep in your life. But the question is: what is the state of the wells today?   2. Enemies have blocked up the wells of a previous generation. Since Abraham died, enemies with hostile intent, moved in to block what had been conquered. This is the similar scenario that Jesus described in the parable of the weeds (Matthew 13:24-43). Today we can see much evidence of the work of the enemies of God, and of the arch enemy Satan, in countless lives and maybe also in our own lives and families. In Britain, we can see that after many great revivals, Christianity has been under sustained attack for a long time and today faces many challenges to our national Christian identity. Forces hostile to Christianity include: - Aggressive secular humanists who deny the reality of any absolute truths or standards and who legislate morality as seems best to them - Evolutionists who ridicule the possibility of any creator  - Growing numbers of Paganists who literally worship the devil - Radical Islamists who are anti-democracy, anti-Jewish and who are intent on making Britain submit to Islam - Militant transgender activists who violently oppose the concept of biological genders and traditional morality Just as in the parable that Jesus told, much of this has happened while the church has been spiritually asleep, divided and often pre-occupied with its own concerns. It is time to wake up and see the big spiritual picture but also for to take immediate actions to first face up to what is causing what any blockage in any areas of our lives. It may be one thing or many things: - Hidden and unconfessed sin - Bitterness of spirit - Pride - Judgmentalism - Criticism of leaders and fellow believers: Don't be like the generation who always criticised Moses and failed to get into the promised land. Or like those who wouldn't recognise Jesus even as a prophet as they had known him for many years which blocked him from working miracles in his home town - Withholding of tithes and offerings - Unbelief and cynicism - Love of money and this world more than God - Neglect of your spiritual life and family life - Overbusyness  All these things and others also can, and maybe have, brought great blockage in your life. And they need to be removed by a decision to get real and repent in order to once more access the life-giving water of God's grace and anointing.    3. Each generation needs to unblock old wells. Our political and cultural elite have turned their backs on this country's spiritual heritage - the old wells. Many church leaders, including evangelical leaders, have also turned away from many of the emphases of our spiritual forefathers. But we can be among those who re-open the wells of blessing in our generation. Now of course every generation needs to communicate in a way that can cause the gospel to be understood by each generation. But what we need at root is a return to true spiritual roots. Back to what is tested and proven and sure. This means that we must:  - Unblock the Wells of Christ centred Christianity: Christianity is primarily about Christ. We need to put Jesus at the centre of our lives and share boldly the good news of his saving love through his death and resurrection. - Unblock the wells of holy living: It's the pure in heart who will see God. Holiness is how close I can get to God, not how much can I get away with. Holiness means running from sexual immorality and unclean thoughts and words and relationships. Holiness means treating people right in life and business and caring for the poor. - Unblock the wells of sacrificial service: Christ has made the ultimate sacrifice, but we too are called to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow him. The great stories of the advance of the gospel and Christian mission are stories of individuals who have sacrificed time, money, sleep, careers, health and sometimes life itself. - Unblock the wells of Prayer: Prayer is essential to spiritual life and vitality. It is time once again to seek the Lord (Jeremiah 29:13). - Unblock the wells of Bible study: The Bible is a book of life. There is power, protection and prosperity when we are focussed on the Word of God. We should constantly read the Word of God, meditate on it, study it and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate it.  - Unblock the wells of forgiveness: It's time to let go of grudges and arguments and to be reconciled like the Prodigal was with His father and Joseph was with his brothers. - Unblock the wells of honour for leadership authority: Break with an old culture of dishonour and disrespect. - Unblock the wells of generous giving: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse and give your best offerings. - Unblock the wells of faith in God: Unbelief, doubt and negative speech and thought patterns must go for the blessing to flow. Start to believe God's word and step out. Faith is not faith until it is an act (Hebrews 11:6). - Unblock the wells of praise and worship: It's time for you to sing again.  - Unblock the wells of evangelism and Salvation: Go out to the multitudes and share the good news of Jesus at every opportunity. - Unblock the wells of dependence on the anointing of the Holy Spirit  That's quite a lot of unblocking to do. But it is totally worth doing. For when you do, ‘with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation' (Isaiah 12:3). Isaac discovered the blessings of re-opening old wells and he learnt also how to sink new wells as this chapter also reveals. He was blessed in his life and generation. By following his example, you also will know great life and blessing for yourselves and for your generations. 

Times of purification and prayer amongst the people of God are how every Christian movement of revival and restoration has begun. This is also an essential process if we seriously want to see great change in our lives, our families and in our nations, and indeed if we are focussed on seeing a Great Harvest of people turning to Christ.   As we have already discovered in our current series on the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God wants to bless every generation.   He greatly blessed Abraham, with a long-promised son, with great wealth and promises of limitless descendants. He also blessed Isaac in so many ways and He would later greatly bless Jacob and his descendants. But to keep the blessing flowing, there were obstacles to overcome, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all discovered.   Genesis 26:18 talks of how Isaac unblocked his blessings, saying: ‘Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.'   Isaac was in big trouble. In a time of famine, he had gone to the land of the Philistines and God has blessed him greatly - so much so that locals became envious, and he had to move on. He did so - to Gerar, approximately 11 miles southeast of Gaza.   But he and his family had a very urgent need - not of land but of water. Wells that you could access water from were essential to their survival and prosperity. This is something our brothers and sisters in Burkina Faso also know which is why we have supported different projects over the years to sink wells in the world's third poorest country.  A well represents life, blocking up a well represents death. Now just as access to natural water is of the highest importance, so too the spiritual water of the Holy Spirit is vital to the health and growth of the Christian church.   As Christians we constantly need the streams of living water (the Holy Spirit, the life giver) that Jesus promised (John 7:38). Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we will remain thirsty and fruitless. As individuals and churches, we need to always remove anything that would block us from finding water from God.   This passage is very relevant to where we are today in the Christian church in the U.K and other nations as well as to many of us are personally. We see some key points:   1. Generations that have gone before us have dug life giving wells (Hebrews 12:1-3) 2. Enemies have blocked up the wells of a previous generation (Matthew 13:24-43)  3. Each generation needs to unblock old wells (Jeremiah 29:13; Hebrews 11:6; Isaiah 12:3)  Apply   1. Generations that have gone before us have dug life giving wells. Father Abraham had dug wells. Isaac had no need to re-invent the wheel, to dig fresh wells. Excellent wells had already been dug. In one sense much of the hard work had been done. Others had been this way before him. His father had learnt how to sink wells. Today we need to realise much ground has already been won. Battles for biblical truth, for political freedom of worship, for recognition of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. A century ago Pentecostal Christians were ridiculed for their emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Now today Spirit filled Christians and churches are at the forefront of global Christianity. For sure many great men and women of God gone before us: - John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, William Wilberforce, William and Catherine Booth, Corrie Ten Boom, Billy Graham…The list is endless: - Gladys Alyward, the pioneer missionary to China, Smith Wiggleworth, the Bradford plumber, Teddy Hodgson, who was martyred in Congo and our own pioneer founder, W.T.H. ‘Billy' Richards.   They have shown the way forward by faith, vision and action. In one sense they knew how to sink wells, they knew what worked, they knew how to tap into the blessing of God. We are part of a long line of heroes of faith and their lives and ministries should be a source of instruction and inspiration (Hebrews 12:1-3). In the UK and elsewhere, there are many families, churches, communities and institutions that continue to this day because of previous godly generations, including generations of believers in this church. You too personally may have a rich spiritual history where you can point to many times where you have experienced the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The wells of God have been sunk deep in your life. But the question is: what is the state of the wells today?   2. Enemies have blocked up the wells of a previous generation. Since Abraham died, enemies with hostile intent, moved in to block what had been conquered. This is the similar scenario that Jesus described in the parable of the weeds (Matthew 13:24-43). Today we can see much evidence of the work of the enemies of God, and of the arch enemy Satan, in countless lives and maybe also in our own lives and families. In Britain, we can see that after many great revivals, Christianity has been under sustained attack for a long time and today faces many challenges to our national Christian identity. Forces hostile to Christianity include: - Aggressive secular humanists who deny the reality of any absolute truths or standards and who legislate morality as seems best to them - Evolutionists who ridicule the possibility of any creator  - Growing numbers of Paganists who literally worship the devil - Radical Islamists who are anti-democracy, anti-Jewish and who are intent on making Britain submit to Islam - Militant transgender activists who violently oppose the concept of biological genders and traditional morality Just as in the parable that Jesus told, much of this has happened while the church has been spiritually asleep, divided and often pre-occupied with its own concerns. It is time to wake up and see the big spiritual picture but also for to take immediate actions to first face up to what is causing what any blockage in any areas of our lives. It may be one thing or many things: - Hidden and unconfessed sin - Bitterness of spirit - Pride - Judgmentalism - Criticism of leaders and fellow believers: Don't be like the generation who always criticised Moses and failed to get into the promised land. Or like those who wouldn't recognise Jesus even as a prophet as they had known him for many years which blocked him from working miracles in his home town - Withholding of tithes and offerings - Unbelief and cynicism - Love of money and this world more than God - Neglect of your spiritual life and family life - Overbusyness  All these things and others also can, and maybe have, brought great blockage in your life. And they need to be removed by a decision to get real and repent in order to once more access the life-giving water of God's grace and anointing.    3. Each generation needs to unblock old wells. Our political and cultural elite have turned their backs on this country's spiritual heritage - the old wells. Many church leaders, including evangelical leaders, have also turned away from many of the emphases of our spiritual forefathers. But we can be among those who re-open the wells of blessing in our generation. Now of course every generation needs to communicate in a way that can cause the gospel to be understood by each generation. But what we need at root is a return to true spiritual roots. Back to what is tested and proven and sure. This means that we must:  - Unblock the Wells of Christ centred Christianity: Christianity is primarily about Christ. We need to put Jesus at the centre of our lives and share boldly the good news of his saving love through his death and resurrection. - Unblock the wells of holy living: It's the pure in heart who will see God. Holiness is how close I can get to God, not how much can I get away with. Holiness means running from sexual immorality and unclean thoughts and words and relationships. Holiness means treating people right in life and business and caring for the poor. - Unblock the wells of sacrificial service: Christ has made the ultimate sacrifice, but we too are called to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow him. The great stories of the advance of the gospel and Christian mission are stories of individuals who have sacrificed time, money, sleep, careers, health and sometimes life itself. - Unblock the wells of Prayer: Prayer is essential to spiritual life and vitality. It is time once again to seek the Lord (Jeremiah 29:13). - Unblock the wells of Bible study: The Bible is a book of life. There is power, protection and prosperity when we are focussed on the Word of God. We should constantly read the Word of God, meditate on it, study it and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate it.  - Unblock the wells of forgiveness: It's time to let go of grudges and arguments and to be reconciled like the Prodigal was with His father and Joseph was with his brothers. - Unblock the wells of honour for leadership authority: Break with an old culture of dishonour and disrespect. - Unblock the wells of generous giving: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse and give your best offerings. - Unblock the wells of faith in God: Unbelief, doubt and negative speech and thought patterns must go for the blessing to flow. Start to believe God's word and step out. Faith is not faith until it is an act (Hebrews 11:6). - Unblock the wells of praise and worship: It's time for you to sing again.  - Unblock the wells of evangelism and Salvation: Go out to the multitudes and share the good news of Jesus at every opportunity. - Unblock the wells of dependence on the anointing of the Holy Spirit  That's quite a lot of unblocking to do. But it is totally worth doing. For when you do, ‘with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation' (Isaiah 12:3). Isaac discovered the blessings of re-opening old wells and he learnt also how to sink new wells as this chapter also reveals. He was blessed in his life and generation. By following his example, you also will know great life and blessing for yourselves and for your generations. 

What makes Christianity Christianity? In this episode of Light + Truth, John Piper turns to Romans 3:9–18 to detail Paul's glorious explanation of our faith.

Dr. Kirk Clayton of Zion Lutheran-Mascoutah, IL The post 3491. Answering Arguments against Christianity: Christianity is a White Religion, Dr. Kirk Clayton – 12/15/23 first appeared on Issues, Etc..

**THIS IS A RE-RELEASE, NERDS!!!***In which we (mostly Megan) walk you through three things you maybe don't know about early Christianity:Christianity was kind of a mistakeThe New Testament is a messy bitchChristianity = imperialismKeywords: BCE/CE, gospels, apocrypha, canon, epistlesStorytime: Becket, Waiting for Godot As always, be sure to visit keepingit101.com for full show notes, homework, transcripts, & more!

"What Makes Christianity, Christianity" | Begin our new series Galatians: No Longer Slaves as we start distinguishing between what Christianity truly is and what it isn't. August 30, 2023

"What Makes Christianity, Christianity" | Begin our new series Galatians: No Longer Slaves as we start distinguishing between what Christianity truly is and what it isn't. Enjoy this version with "Elmore Heights". August 30, 2023

Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at the Harvard Divinity School led a online conversation with the 2022-23 Yang Visiting Scholars, Dr. Heather Mellquist Lehto, and Dr. Ashok Kumar Mocherla. This conversation showed us how perspectives on the global scene might confirm, yet also challenge, how we think about Christianity and the study of Christianity here in the United States. The Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity program brings distinguished senior and junior scholars of world Christianity to Harvard Divinity School each year, opening up fresh perspectives, particularly from the global south. This is our second year of having Yang Visiting Scholars at HDS, and the cohort for the third year in 2023-24 has been selected and those scholars will also be in attendance. This event took place April 18, 2023. A full transcript is forthcoming. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

Christianity will never be "cool." But it doesn't have to be. Because that's not what the world needs from Christians.If you have questions and want to know more about God, like what does he think of you, what exactly was Jesus all about, how do you get “saved” and just what exactly does it mean to “get saved,” and what you should do next, we want you to download this free resource Pastor Mike wrote called, The Basics: God. You. Jesus. Faith. Get your free download at timeofgrace.org/thebasicsCheck out our newest video project, Bible Breath With Pastor Jeremy Mattek! https://youtu.be/UWHreTMY788Check out our other podcasts! Search for these on your favorite podcast app. – The Nonmicrowaved Truth with C.L. Whiteside – Little Things, with Amber Albee Swenson– Bible Threads, with Dr. Bruce Becker– Evening Encouragements With Pastor Jeremy– Time of Grace With Pastor Mike NovotnyTo stay rooted in Jesus, subscribe to our daily email! https://timeofgrace.org/subscribe/ Order your copy of Pastor Mike's new book, What's Big Starts Small on Amazon! https://amzn.to/3NUW3ZX

Lets share Good News together. To partner with us financially visit www.gospelchurch.co/give or text the word "FRESH" to 94000. Billy speaks on how our misunderstanding of Jesus hinders our life. Message Notes: "The Living Jesus" 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,[b] “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. – John 20v11-18 (ESV) 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? – Luke 24v4-5 (NIV) The goal of Christianity is not information it's spiritual formation. 4 biggests issues with Christianity: There can't be just one true religion! Why would a good God allow suffering Science has disproved Christianity Christianity is a straitjacket 1. Christianity makes the most sense For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones.– Matthew 24v24 (ESV) Religion is a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about, who we are, and the most important things that human beings should spend their time doing. – Tim Keller Other religions: I obey therefore I am accepted The gospel: I am accepted in Jesus therefore I obey. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. — Ephesians 2v8-10 (ESV) For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. — 1 Corinthians 1v18 (ESV) Tips for growing in faith. Ask questions Look for faith Never know it all 2. Suffering isn't evidence against God I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. – John 16v33 (ESV)

Ted asks about what the Bible tells us about Jesus Christ and atonement. Rod talks about what's going on on the cross, what Jesus went though, why it needed to happen, and what makes Christianity Christianity.

Let us pray with you • https://willamette.cc/prayer • Fill out a quick form to let us know how we can be praying for you. Worship • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJiXY9vBKd-n2kH_vqUbneg • Check out Willamette Music's YouTube channel to find the songs we most often sing together on Sundays. Find Care • https://willamette.cc/care • Willamette strives to address unique life circumstances in multiple ways, through care and support. Week 4 Study Resources • https://cdn.willamette.cc/assets/downloads/Ruth_Week_4_Digital_Copy.pdf • Sermon Notes - February 13, 2022Choose: Ruth - Chapter 4 - Brian Becker Our hope in Christ:"Your past may explain you, but it doesn't have to define you." Numbers 25:1-2 (NLT)While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove, some of the men defiled themselves by having sexual relations with local Moabite women. These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab. Setting: Time of the Judges"Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes." A question we all must ask ourselves...Who gets to define your sexual ethic? Ruth 1: 16-17 (ESV) “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried…” Ruth 3:18 (ESV)She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” Ruth 4:1 (ESV)Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And Behold:Ruth 2:4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.Ruth 3:8 And behold, a woman lay at his feet.Ruth 4:1 And behold, the redeemer came by… Behold:God is at workGod has a plan and a purpose Ruth 4:1-6 (ESV)Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.' If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” Ruth 4:7 (ESV)Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. Boaz was living according to God's instructions for his people from hundreds of years earlier. Deuteronomy 25:5-10 (ESV)“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.' Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,' then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.' And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.' Ruth 4:8-11 (ESV)So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day." Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. Ruth 4:11-13 (ESV)May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.” So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. The results of Boaz trusting God's way: Boaz gave Ruth the dignity she deserved both privately and publicly.Boaz didn't keep things a secret.Boaz took responsibility but didn't take matters into his own hands. The results of Ruth trusting God's way: Ruth adopted a new way of living. Ruth trusted and waited. Ruth refused to let her past dictate her future. Who gets to define your sexual ethic? Definition of Christianity:Christianity is trusting that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life…for all aspects of life.We follow Jesus in all aspects of life. 2 Types of Purity: Outward Purity: The BehaviorInward Purity: The Heart Outward Purity: The Behavior“Flee from sexual immorality...You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” - 1 Corinthians 6:18, 19-20 Inward Purity: The Heart“How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.” - Psalm 119:9-10 3 Responses to Impurity: DefensivenessRemorseRepentance-The Biblical Response God is a redeeming God.He has plans and purposes for you.He wants to guide you in all aspects of life.

Dr. Angus Menuge of Concordia University-Wisconsin Reading God's World: The Scientific Vocation Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science The International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights

This is the first episode in our new series: Church History. Dr. Hannah puts it well when he says, "If you don't have a past, you can't understand the present and you don't have hope for the future." In this first conversation of the series, Michael and Dr. Hannah discuss: The imperative for understanding our history The path to hope The validity of Christianity Christianity in: The age of the Roman Empire The Medieval Period The Reformation The transcendence of the gospel throughout history Redemption How did church factions and traditions come about? Join us through these next five weeks as we look at the history of the church in America and around the world.  Click Here for Show Notes.

In which we (mostly Megan) walk you through three things you maybe don't know about early Christianity:Christianity was kind of a mistakeThe New Testament is a messy bitchChristianity = imperialismKeywords: BCE/CE, gospels, apocrypha, canon, epistlesStorytime: Becket, Waiting for Godot As always, be sure to visit keepingit101.com for full show notes, homework, transcripts, & more!

Before Biggie v Tupac, there was Patriarchs v Popes. This episode discusses the original East Coast v West Coast beef, the ecclesiastical and geopolitical showdown between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Dr. Angus Menuge of Concordia University-Wisconsin Reading God’s World: The Scientific Vocation Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science The International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights

Dr. Alvin Schmidt of Illinois College How Christianity Changed the World

0 (2s): Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome. We're glad you're here with us. It's a little damp and gloomy out there, but I think it's going to clear up and be a pretty day. So I'm excited to lead with you guys again here. It's been a little while, so Sherilyn and doing everything. So it's fun to be back up here. If you guys could stand with this, maybe up on the patio, we welcome you and the loft online. We're going to get a chance to worship with you. And I'm excited about that. So let me pray for us. We'll get started. Oh Lord God. It is such a special time. When we gather as a church here on Sunday, Lord, we're just here together, Lord, for a purpose to receive from you, Lord. 0 (47s): And we're going to give you praise first Lord. We're going to usher you in this place. We're going to sing these songs Lord, with everything that we have. We just want your presence take over the whole campus. Lord, the children's classrooms everywhere. Just leave. No doubt that you're here with us today, Lord. So bless this time. It's in your name. We pray. Amen. 1 (1m 15s): present system thank you, Lord. 1 (16m 36s): That you are faithful. We put our hope in you this morning. God, we pray that you would just be here in our midst. Just touching every heart healing. Every body just calming every anxiety. Your perfect love. Just cast out for you this morning. Let me just center our hearts, our affection or attention on Jesus today to give us ears, to hear you and eyes, to see you hearts of wide enough to receive all that you have for us. We pray this in Jesus beautiful name. Amen you man. So good. 1 (17m 16s): Church to be together. We're going to continue just to worship by saying hello to each other. So high fives, handshakes, whatever you feel comfortable with. Say hello to someone way back in a few minutes with some announcements, 3 (17m 30s): Right? Good morning. Harvest Church Hey, nice shirt Perry. Thanks. Good morning. Harvest Church so glad to be here with y'all. Hey, I'm Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and I just got a few announcements for us two minutes. That's it. I'll try. 4 (17m 51s): All right, so, Hey, welcome. If you're, if you're new here, if you're joining us online, want to say a big welcome to you. We'd love for you to stop by the info center. Get plugged in, fill out a communication card. Just find out what's going on here at Church next. We have a exciting, so next week 9:00 AM service. We'll start our kids classes again from birth to kindergarten we'll resume. Next week 9:00 AM service as well as 11. O'clock our full youth program, fifth grade, sixth grade youth, junior high and high school. All that will be next week as well. And don't forget, next week is time change Sunday. 2 (18m 30s): Oh, 4 (18m 33s): You get an, Oh, you get an hour. So it's good. Okay. Okay. All right, so, so it's good. Next next week you might be early or late, depending on when you come. So there's a, another way, a new way to connect with us. If you have an iPhone or Android device, we have Harvest app and there's a new button on there, a new link and it's called connect and that's on our website as well. And that's just a way to connect with us, to give us some prayer requests, sign up for classes or events, volunteer, all that stuff. That's all found on the connect link. And then lastly, we have a Thanksgiving food basket collection that we're starting. The Wiki weekly email update gives a list of items that they're looking for, that they're hoping for. 4 (19m 15s): And you can pick that up at the info center or look for it on the updates and donations are needed by November 15th. So those will be available. Now we get to watch the baptism video from last week. So if you, if you missed it, here's a sweet recap, Kristen, amazing job editing it all, put it together. And I think you're gonna be blessed. It was a great, great day. So here we go. 2 (19m 42s): we, that shoes shoes. 6 (23m 53s): I've said this before. Some of the, some of the best ministry happens when I'm not in town. So I wasn't there. I didn't get a chance to be a part of it, but I'm watching it. So this is the first time I've seen. I got a chance to see what was going on. And we baptized, I think 15 people had a couple hundred people out to, to watch and participate in worship and really, really powerful stuff. So it's, it's hard to, hard to top that, but we're going to be in a Colossus chapter two today. So go ahead and turn there and welcome. I'm I'm back after being gone for a couple of weeks. It is great. It is really great to, to go on vacation, but then it's always just so wonderful to be back. And so I've missed you guys. I love you. 6 (24m 33s): And I'm really grateful to be back here at Harvest Church. Thank you, brother. Appreciate that very much. We're going to be in Colossus chapter two, verses 11 through 23 today. Quick joke. You guys ready for a joke. I kind of made this one up. I should have told you that after the fact, but I kind of made it up. So there's three, three guys stranded on a desert, a deserted Island kind of know where this is going, where these guys are out there for quite a while and they come upon this genie's lamp and they find this genie's lamp. And they're so excited because they're rubbing on this thing and this genie comes out and he's offering to give each of these men one wish. And they're, they're very excited. 6 (25m 13s): The first guy's a doctor, he's missing home. He has got patients who need his attention. He's been out there for a long time and he said, Hey, I've got, I got stuff to do. I got to get home. My, I wish that I would get off this Island and get back to my practice. Boom, he's gone next. Guy's a college professor. And he's like, Hey man, I've got we're mid mid-semester. I'm right in the middle of my duties. As a professor, I need to get back to my students. My wish is that I would get off of this Island and get back to the college campus. Boom, he's gone. The next guy's retired. And he's got enjoying his time on this deserted Island. 6 (25m 54s): And he realizes as his buddies go get, you know, get exported off the Island that he kinda misses them. And so he says, Hey, can you bring those guys back? That's pretty good. Huh? All right. Good, good, good. I'll go back to my other source for jokes. Hey, we've titled the passage today. Christianity one Oh one. It's funny. Cause I titled this message on Thursday, on my prep day. And then on Thursday afternoon, I'm listening to another message. And that guy titled his message. Christianity one Oh one. So we're onto something here. Something's going on. So totally different contexts, totally different points and totally different texts. But there's something important about going back to the basics of our faith. 6 (26m 39s): The basics are important in any, any field, whether it be sports or business. The basics are very, very important. I remember when I was training to run long distances, there were a few things that absolutely had to happen in order for me to effectively run a long race. I had to eat right the day before had to get plenty of sleep. I had to hydrate. And then I had to pace myself. Those things absolutely needed to happen. I remember one race. I was scheduled to run a marathon and it, the schedule of the marathon was I had something else come up and I was going to be traveling on that day of the marathon. So I said, I called my son, Curtis. I said, Hey, would you just pace me? I'm going to go out and run this mayor. 6 (27m 19s): I've been training. I, I need to go run this marathon. So I said, would you ride a bike and just pace me and make sure I've got, you know, hydration and that sort of thing. And, and so he did. And so I run, I get up to S from Oceana and get up to San Louis and I'm on my way back. And by all 18, I have to use the restroom. You know, it's a long you're drinking the whole time and you're trying to stay hydrated. So I stop in Avalon beach to use the restroom. And when I started to run again, I cramped up so bad. I couldn't run the rest of the race. So it was, it was a bit heartbreaking and I never went back and finished a full marathon, but I, I walked the rest of the way and finished it that way. 6 (28m 0s): But there was something broke down in my training. Something broke down in my preparation. I wasn't able to finish 7 (28m 7s): The race. We 6 (28m 9s): Talk about the, the essentials, the basics, getting back to the, the essentials and the basics because we want to finish, well, we want to finish this race. And some of us are just going to limp across the finish line. And that's, that's going to get you there. Others are going to run and run all the way through. I want us all to finish the race. So we're talking about Christianity one Oh one today so that we can finish the race. Colossians chapter two verses 11 through 23 says this verse 11 says, when you, when you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. 6 (28m 53s): If you're in Christ, if you're a Christian today, if you've been saved by the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, this has actually taken place in your life. You've, you've undergone a, you've undergone an operation as spiritual circumcision, where God has accomplished something in your heart, a cutting away of your sinful nature. He's done this for you so that you can run the race and finish the race. 7 (29m 17s): I 6 (29m 17s): Love Romans two 28 and three 29. It says this for you are not a true Jew because you were born of Jewish parents, or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision, Noah trued, you is one whose heart is right with God. That's what God does for us. A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law. Rather. It is a change 4 (29m 43s): Of heart produced by the spirit capitalist spirit, the Holy spirit, and a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God. Not from people with that. Let's go ahead and stand up. And we're going to pray and ask the Lord's blessing upon the message today. Lord God, we stand in prayer and adoration of you because you are God. And because you are good. And because you are King your Lord, you are the savior. The one who has circumcised, our hearts cut away, cutting away our sinful nature, those desires of the flesh, Lord God. And I pray that as we come face to face with this truth, this revelation, this understanding, Lord God, that our lives would be transformed God, that it would set us on a different trajectory, a healthy trajectory, a godly God honoring trajectory for the rest of our lives. 4 (30m 32s): God, that we would just realize truth and live differently out of that truth. God that you would fill us with your Holy spirit. As we read your, as your, as we read your, your anointed word and God speak to us, everybody's coming from a different place today. Lord, some of them, some are excited to be here. Some are feeling just a little bit beat up by the world. Some are feeling just overwhelmed emotionally. And I just pray God, whatever the case may be, that you would speak to us. God that you administer to us and God that you would speak through me. You're humble vessel this morning. God, I I'm I'm. I want to be used to encourage, to Edify, to build up the saints in their most Holy faith. 4 (31m 15s): And I want to be built up Lord. I want to be built up in my most Holy faith. So do that good work. We pray in jesus' name. 6 (31m 21s): Amen. Hey man, you can be seated. 4 (31m 24s): I, I changed hearts. A circumcised heart no longer wants to please 6 (31m 32s): People. 4 (31m 34s): This is how, you know, if, if God's working in your heart and of God has done something, there's a, there's a, there's a change. There's a change in your soul and in your heart. Number one in your notes, a changed heart wants to please, God, that's just the reality. But when we've had an encounter with God, when we've welcomed him into our lives, when he's had the opportunity to perform that spiritual circumcision, our minds changed about the way that we live our lives. We no longer care about being people, pleasers our desires that we want to please, God, we are our desires to please the Lord. Some of us are having a hard time, kind of 6 (32m 11s): Getting there. We 4 (32m 13s): Have all of these great desires. We want to please the Lord. But we are caught up on in people pleasing. We want to please the people in our lives. And that is hindering us from pleasing the God in our lives. Like I want to read the Bible, but I keep getting interrupted by people like by emails, 6 (32m 34s): Like by text 4 (32m 35s): Messages and phone calls, et cetera, I want to do this right thing. I want to get and make God my priority. But I keep getting interrupted by all of these people demands in my life. I want to pray, but I keep getting interrupted by people. All of these people demands in my life. I want to go to church, but I keep getting interrupted by people. I want to serve God. I want to do all of these things, but I keep getting interrupted by people. Romans eight, two 29, again says in a person with a changed heart, seeks praise from God, not from people. So if we continue to get interrupted, we need to radically shake up the way that we're living our lives and radically change our priorities so that we're able to do the things that God is calling us to do. 4 (33m 22s): As followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, we're running a race. And if we don't prepare properly and if we don't get ourselves in spiritual shape, we're not going to finish the race. We're not going to do well. And we're not going to enjoy the journey. God wants us to finish. He wants us to enjoy the journey. He wants us to enjoy him. And so there's a time in our life. When we recognize that there's too many distractions and most of those distractions come in the form of people through internet distractions, through text messages, through emails, through phone calls, through all kinds of different things, where people are trying to they're vying for our attention. They don't realize it. And then there's no harm intended, but unless we keep those things in proper balance in our lives, we're never going to do the things that God has called us to do and live the way that God has called us to live. 4 (34m 17s): We can have a change tart, but lack, self control and focus, right? We can have a changed heart, meaning God has cut away that carnal nature, that sinful nature, but we lack focus. And self-control we lack those things that will help us to grow in our faith as followers of the Lord. Jesus. So I would just say this, ask God to help you to remove those distractions. Maybe turn off your phone. I just read a book. It's called ruthlessly. The, the ruthless elimination of hurry by John Mark Homer and our staff is actually reading it. It was recommended to me and I started to getting into it. And then I said, Hey, the team, we're going to read this thing and just kind of learn together the ruthless elimination of hurry. 4 (34m 58s): Cause our, our culinary culture, we're just hurried. We're rushing everywhere, where we're driving faster than the speed limit because we're in a hurry. Even if we're not going anywhere, we're in a hurry to get there, right? We don't even know why we're in a hurry, but we're constantly in or hurry in in that book. John Mark Homer recommends turning off your phone. He's he? They've got young kids at the house and some of us do some of us don't. He said that when my kids go to bed, I put my phone to bed and I don't wake my phone back up until after I've done my morning devotions, isn't that powerful. So he's keeping in check those devices that are so often distracting us and keeping us from doing the things that God have us to do. 4 (35m 38s): So turn 6 (35m 38s): Off our phones, turn off your phone, close your computer. Don't look at social media, stop playing your games. Give God your full attention. I hear this all the time, but I'd never hear from God. I never hear God speak what God can't speak to us unless he's got our full attention. So we need to power down the devices, focus on God 8 (35m 58s): And 6 (35m 59s): Exercise some self control in our relationship with God, with him, give God our full attention. So Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. So your, your sinful nature is cut away. Meaning you no longer enjoy sin like you did at one time, who can identify with that? I remember before Christ, I could send them till the cows came home and it didn't really bother me. I mean, I I'd get maybe a ting of guilt in my conscience. I'd feel a little bad from time to time. But, but trust me, the, the, the, the sin, it didn't stop. I wasn't bothered to the point where I was actually stopped. 6 (36m 40s): I didn't actually have the power to stop sending. And so I enjoyed it. But what happened is when I gave my life to Jesus, everything changed that spiritual circumcision took place. And now I can no longer enjoy sin. Still stumbled from time to time and sin from time to time. But I couldn't enjoy it any longer. Why? Because there was a spiritual circumcision that took place. There was a cutting away of that flesh. 8 (37m 9s): You're new in Christ, 6 (37m 12s): New and Christ with your spiritual circumcision, but we can slip back into old patterns and old ways of doing things. We need to remember a changed heart wants to please God. And so if you're in a place where your heart is not wanting to please, God, I would just challenge you today. Challenge you today to return to your first love, to ask the Lord to again, change your hearts. A changed heart wants to please God, number one. But number two, temptation is always going to be present. Have you guys noticed that in your walk with the Lord, 8 (37m 50s): Is it just me? 6 (37m 51s): Anybody else noticed that temptation is going to be present? We stumble at times in sin because of the temptation to sin, but because God has changed our hearts, we don't want to sin. That's the difference. We've been spiritually circumcised, so we no longer want to sin. When we sin as Christians, we grieve and we regret the action of our sinful decision. Sin is followed by repentance. Proving. Maybe you're here today. And you're saying, man, I just don't feel like I'm even a Christian because I, I keep falling into the same pit. I keep falling into the same mistakes and making the same and causing the same problems in my life. Listen, if you're feeling regrets after those decisions of sinfulness, you it's proof 4 (38m 36s): That the Holy spirit has cut away. That Jesus has cut away. That, that carnal nature and you're, you're wrestling. You're in this wrestling match. The temptation is overwhelming, but I promise you, if you begin to train for the battle at hand and prepare yourself, you will begin to get victory over those things. How do you train for that? You can't just go out and run a marathon without preparation, and you can't just go out and try to serve Jesus in a fallen world without preparation, without the preparation, you're going to continue to fall into the same old bad habits and bad patterns of sin that you've always fallen into. 6 (39m 11s): But when you 4 (39m 11s): Strengthen yourself in God's word and strengthen yourself through the spirit of God, through the Holy spirit, then you've got the power and the grace to say no to those things 6 (39m 19s): Keep tripping you up. King David was a man after God's own heart and he got distracted, right? He got distracted and, 4 (39m 30s): And that's something that's been plaguing humanity since their creation distraction, he got distracted and he fell into sin with Bathsheba and had Uriah. The Hittite, her husband killed 6 (39m 43s): Because he wanted to kind of cover up his sin. But he was a man after God's own heart. And when he was confronted with his own sinfulness and that interesting, he was a man after God's own heart. And yet he committed adultery and murder. 4 (40m 4s): This is the difference when he was confronted with his sinfulness, he repented. So I'm 51 is all about 6 (40m 11s): Is repentance. This is what he said, have mercy on me. Oh God, wow. This is not 4 (40m 22s): Just lip service. Like Lord, forgive me. 6 (40m 24s): I messed up again. He said, have mercy on me. Oh God, 4 (40m 28s): Because of your unfailing love because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of 6 (40m 34s): My sins. He, 4 (40m 38s): The weight, the gravity, the IM the, the importance of repentance and doing it wholeheartedly. He certainly sinned wholeheartedly. He went into it head first, sin wholeheartedly. So now he needs to repent wholeheartedly with the same level of passion and commitment. He said, wash me clean from my guilt and purify me from my sin. I think we send way too flippantly. And there, there are acceptable sins within the church. There are acceptable sins within the Church meaning sins that we don't pay too much attention to. I was talking to summer, somebody earlier in the day in the morning this morning, and she talked about the sin of gluttony. 4 (41m 20s): There's a sin called gluttony. There's a white lies that we just kind of dismiss. 6 (41m 27s): There's pride 4 (41m 28s): That we tend to just dismiss these things that we don't take seriously 6 (41m 34s): In our walk with Jesus. David understood the weight and the gravity of the sin in his life. Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me for my sin for, I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night against you and you alone. Have I sinned? I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say in your judgment against me as just meaning you're right. I'm wrong. And your judgment is just often when we sin, we were pants and then we don't want to reap any consequences for our actions. And often the change comes because of the consequences for our actions. 6 (42m 16s): We're forgiven, but there's consequences. David had a lifelong experience with those consequences for his sins. I was born a sinner. He said, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb. Teaching me wisdom. Even there purify me for my sins and I will be clean wash me and I will be whiter than snow. He recognizes the power of the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the power of the grace of God to wash over. He knew that if he confessed his sins, that he would be white as snow, that he would be forgiven. So he didn't wallow in it longer than he needed to. 6 (42m 56s): Sometimes we repent and we continue to repent for the same sin that we committed a year ago or five years ago or 10 years ago. So there's a balance that we need to strike here. We need to repent quickly hold short accounts with God repenting quickly for our sin, but then recognizing the power and the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ to wash us as white as snow. David understood the grace and the mercy of the Lord. Jesus Christ. 7 (43m 22s): Okay. 6 (43m 25s): David had a walk with the Lord, a relationship with the Lord so that when he sinned, it grieved him deeply. When he sinned, he knew he needed to repent, honestly. And sincerely. So Psalm 51. If you're in a place where you need to repent to repent is to recognize God, you are right. I am wrong. I have sinned against you and you Lord you alone. Lord, have I sinned against? And I need to change my mind to repent means to literally change your mind and to move in a different direction. Some of us are here today. We need to do that. Maybe because of the sins of lying, maybe it's the sin of pride. 6 (44m 5s): Maybe it's a sin of gluttony. You fill in the blank, whatever the sin may be and be careful about those socially acceptable sins as well read through Psalm 51 and model David's prayer of repentance in your own life. We see a profound change in somebody's life. Who's been circumcised. Who's experienced a spiritual circumcise. We see a profound change in 4 (44m 32s): Their lives. They just live differently. You guys are examples of that. I'm an example of that. My BC days might be Christ. Days are way different than my salvation days. If they weren't, there'd be a problem. If, if you're living the same way that you were living before you knew Christ, there's a problem. There there's a problem that needs to be addressed. And so the challenge is Lord, how is my life being transformed? How is my life becoming more? How am I becoming more and more like you, there needs to be a profound, a change. The old man sinned and kept sending no regrets, maybe a tinge of guilt, little conscience action going on there. But the new man stumbles into sin and then is broken 6 (45m 12s): Regrets. One commentator wrote what people were in Adam. The first Adam sinful fallen and corrupt was destroyed by Christ. The second Adam 4 (45m 25s): Now in Christ, a believer is a new creation read second Corinthians five 17, and having a new head capital H head new. The Bible says that Jesus is the head of his body. He's Christ. As the head of the church, having a new head, a new leader, a new person that we're responsible to having a new head of believer has a new authority for his life. Not the law of Moses, but the 6 (45m 48s): Law of Christ. 4 (45m 50s): So spiritual circumcision is heart proof of your life in Christ. It is proof of the internal stuff, the stuff that's happening, internal and the eternal change. The old life has gone. A new life has begun. Is that good news? That's what the gospel is all about. So if you think you are a Christian and you can send without regret either number one, you're not really a Christian. If you are a Christian and you think you can sin and you can send without regrets, number one, you're not really a Christian or a number two you've backslidden 6 (46m 22s): And hardened your heart to God. And you no longer experience the conviction of sin. If you're 4 (46m 29s): Christian and you stumble. And when you stumble there's conviction, there's deep regret. Then you know that 6 (46m 34s): Things are, are good with your heart. And you confess your sin like David did in Psalm 51. 4 (46m 41s): Spiritual circumcision is proof of a changed life. Baptism is further. 6 (46m 47s): I love when we get a chance to baptize people, we baptize people. And when we were having a service up at the camp a few months ago, and, and I was surprised to hear that there were 15 more people that needed 4 (46m 58s): That want it to be baptized and there's. And I think there's more people in the room that, that want to be baptized that needed to be baptized. Listen, if you're here and you're a believer in Christ, and you've never been baptized Jesus model for it, he commanded it. He asked his disciples to go into all the nations, baptizing people in the name of the father, the son, the Holy spirit. We actually it's part of our Christian experience. It's a, it's a demonstration of our faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is further proof of a changed life. You're making a public declaration of your faith. First verse 12 says this for you are buried with when you were baptized and with him, you were raised to new life. And because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead baptism is an external demonstration of your cha change life. 4 (47m 45s): The spiritual circumcision is internal. There's something that happens that that reflects in our external life. Externally, we get baptized to prove that we are followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ is our public declaration of, of our faith in 6 (47m 60s): Jesus. Again, 4 (48m 2s): Part of the great commission is to baptize people in the faith, Matthew 28, 19, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit 6 (48m 13s): Spirits. Someone asked me recently, actually it wasn't recently, I guess it was a couple of years ago. They said, why 4 (48m 19s): Do you send out missionaries to other parts of the world when there's so much need in our own country? 6 (48m 24s): Why do you send out missionaries? Well, 4 (48m 26s): We do it because Jesus told us to, he said, go make disciples of all nations, 6 (48m 30s): Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son of the Holy spirit we baptized for the same reason. Jesus told us to 4 (48m 38s): This is how we live our lives as submitted followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We do what Jesus tells us to do. We baptize, we evangelize. We do all of these things because that is what Jesus asked us to do. 6 (48m 53s): Jesus came to give us life. That's 4 (48m 58s): Part of the spiritual circumcision. That's part of the demonstration 6 (49m 1s): Of our, our, our, our baptism. We we're we're. Yeah, 4 (49m 4s): We, we go down signifies our, our death, our old man dying. And we're resurrected into new life. We are baptized because as a picture of our old man dying and our new man resurrecting from the dead, we were literally spiritually dead. Apart from Christ, literally spiritually dead. Apart from Christ. Verse 13 says you were dead. That word means separated. Not annihilated. It means you were spiritually dead cut off from spiritual life. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ. For he forgave all your sins. 4 (49m 46s): We can stop right there. That's really good news. He has forgiven all of our sins. So you were resurrected in Christ from spiritual death. Born again, made alive when Christ cut away your sinful nature. And when he forgave your sins born again, new life in Jesus Christ before Christ intervenes in a person's life, they are sinners, spiritually, dead, without hope, destined for judgment, destined for destruction. 6 (50m 14s): But God thank God for God, for his merciful plan of action that rescues us for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever, whoever believes 4 (50m 28s): In him should not perish, but have ever lasting life. Christianity one Oh one right there in John three 16. When we believe the gospel, when we believe the good news, there is forgiveness, we are accepted. We are adopted. We are welcomed into the family of God. We are literally born again. This is what happens. Verse 14. He says he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Some of us are walking around with old baggage, old sin that we're carrying over our shoulders. That's weighing us down and wearing us out because we don't believe what the scripture says. 4 (51m 9s): We don't believe that God can forgive our sins. We don't believe that. What is written here in this text is true about us. We may believe that it's true about everybody else, but we don't believe that it's true about us. I just want to say, if you're in Christ, if you're a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you've accepted his grace in his mercy, then this is true about you. He canceled the record of the charges against you and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 8 (51m 39s): He took it away 4 (51m 40s): In this way. He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. Listen. Bible says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood ruler of flesh and blood enemies, but we wrestle against the principalities of darkness. And so those principalities who are led by Satan, who is a liar and the father of lies is trying to heap guilt on you for sins that have already been forgiven. He's trying to remind you of past failures and mistakes. Things that have already been forgiven already under the blood of Christ already been nailed to the cross so that they can be forgiven. He is there. The enemy is trying to remind you of things. Don't let him have that head space or a heart space in your life. In this way. He disarmed Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. 4 (52m 21s): He shamed them by publicly shamed them publicly by his victory, over them on the cross. 8 (52m 28s): A changed 4 (52m 29s): Heart wants to please God, number one, but temptation is always going to be present, but number three, but God, God canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross, man. That's good news. We need to hear that and we need to hear it often. We need to believe it. Often we are saved by grace. We are saved through faith. We are not saved because we have done good. We are saved because Christ is good because God is good. So after we come to Christ as a temptation to sin, because temptation is always there, this side of heaven. Anyway, so there's a temptation to sin. You know, all of the things that we see as sin, but there's also a temptation to begin to earn our way, earn God's favor. 4 (53m 16s): There's a temptation to start doing good for the wrong motivation, trying to earn God's favor, temptation to earn our good standing with 6 (53m 26s): God, by keeping the law. I want to read Romans three 19 through 2019 through 22, because it helps us understand the gospel. Listen, if you're confused about what you believe, I just encourage you to open up the scripture because it makes it really crystal clear what we believe as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We think about the law and we think about God's expectations. And this is what, this is what Paul wrote in Romans chapter three, verses 19 and following, he said, obviously the law applies to those, to whom it was given for it's purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God the law was given so that the whole world would know that we are guilty before God, meaning we can't. 6 (54m 10s): We can never measure up by keeping the law. The Bible says, if you break one part of the law, you're actually guilty of breaking all of it. So even if you do great with 99.9% of it, you're guilty of breaking all of the law for no one can ever be made right with God, by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows how sinful we are. That's what the law is designed to do. It's helped us. It helps us to see how sinful we are so that we can see how desperately we need God. All right. So that's, that's it. And then verse 21 says, but now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago, we are made right with God verse 22. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. 7 (54m 54s): Some 6 (54m 55s): Of you have been really wrestling with your relationship with God, feeling unworthy all by yourself. You're unworthy. But what you need to realize, what we need to realize is that the blood of Christ covers us and that blood washes us, such that we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. 7 (55m 22s): So the burden can be lifted. 6 (55m 25s): Some of us are carrying baggage is about old, old mistakes, divorces relationships decisions. When we were young decisions, when we were old decisions that that just haunt us. 7 (55m 42s): Okay? 6 (55m 42s): Don't let those things where you out trust that the Bible is true for 16 says, so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or if not celebrating certain Holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ himself is that reality Christ himself is that reality. I read this. A shadow is only an image cast by an object, which represents its form. Once you find once one, once one finds Christ, he no longer needs to follow the old shadow. Why? Because we have the form. We have the person. 6 (56m 23s): So the versus don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on self, on pious self, or a worship of angels saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful mindset made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ the head of the body for he holds the whole body together, which is joint with its joints and ligaments. And it grows as God nourishes it. 8 (56m 46s): You have died with Christ 6 (56m 49s): And he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle don't taste, don't touch such rules or a mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use 8 (57m 3s): Them. These 6 (57m 5s): Rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious, self denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they prove they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. 8 (57m 17s): Paul 6 (57m 17s): Said basically, essentially neglecting the body does not nourish the spirits. When I was in college, my freshman year of college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I spent every Tuesday and Thursday fasting. And I don't remember why, why I fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but, but what it did ultimately is it became a burden for me because I think in my youthful zeal, I was trying to please, God, I was trying to, in my, to the best of my ability, I think I was trying to honor the Lord, but it just wore me down physically. And it wore me down spiritually. And I, at some point realized that I, I needed to change the way that I was thinking about things. 6 (58m 1s): And so now some years later I need, I'm constantly evaluating my spiritual disciplines. Why am 8 (58m 8s): I doing these things? Am 6 (58m 11s): I doing these things? Because I feel guilty on some level and I'm trying to get rid of that guilt. I think sometimes we're doing our spiritual disciplines, praying, reading the Bible, fasting, you know, tithing, serving. We're doing all of these things because we feel some level of guilt and God wants to, wants to eliminate that from your life. He died on the cross to take away that guilt. So sometimes we're doing our spiritual disciplines because we feel guilty. Sometimes we're trying to earn God's favor. Like maybe God will, you know, it's like, you know, a genie lamp or something. If we, you know, handle the just right, you know, we'll get our wishes answered, but that's not how it works either. 6 (58m 54s): God wants us doing our spiritual disciplines because they help us draw close to him. They help us to understand what it means to walk with him and to love him and to trust him and to believe him. Because I think a lot of us are in relationship with him, but we don't, we don't trust him in that. We read the Bible and we think maybe it applies to others, but we don't think it applies to us. We don't believe him on some levels where else, where else our lives would be different. They'd be emptied of the guilt and the condemnation that we often sense in experience as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so now I still fail at times. 6 (59m 35s): Cause in my humanist, I still want to try to impress God, anybody else? There I go, Lord, I read all of this scripture. Aren't you impressed with me now. Not impressed, but when I'm reading the scripture or praying or devoting myself in some way so that I might know him that are deeper greater, then I'm not looking for an attaboy. I just, I I've automatically got this connection with the Lord. I've automatically got this relationship with the Lord. This the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ is just present in my life. And with that peace and with that confidence in who he is and not in who I am, Christianity one Oh one. 6 (1h 0m 20s): Isn't about works. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's about a relationship that requires our investments much like a, a marathon run. We need to be invested in order to finish the race. We need to take serious this life as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We need to take serious what God has called us to do. And what he's asked us to do, if at all, if at all amounts to just a list of duties, we've totally missed the Mark. We've totally missed what God has for us. I would just encourage us today to examine our lives. 6 (1h 1m 1s): Someone said an unexamined life is not worth living. So we need to always be examining our lives and say, Lord, why am I doing these things? And if you're like me from time to time, you realize that you were doing it with the wrong motivation. And then at that moment, say, Lord, I don't want to be motivated by the wrong stuff any longer. I want to be motivated purely by my relationship with you. I want to finish. Well, I want to run the race with confidence. I want to do what you've called me to do with humility and with integrity. And so God, I want to stay as close to you as humanly possible. Christianity Christianity one Oh to change. Chart wants to please God, but temptation is always going to be present. 6 (1h 1m 41s): So we have to be ready to battle that temptation, even though temptation is present, sometimes we sin God canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. We celebrate what Jesus nailed to the cross. We celebrate our salvation. The fact that Jesus died, shed his blood for us, was crucified for us. We celebrate communion the Lord's table on the fourth, Sunday of every month. And today's the fourth, Sunday of the month. And so we're going to be taking communion. Hopefully everybody received communion elements. When you came in, if you need communion elements, go ahead and raise your hand and we'll get you those elements there. Go, and Deb's going to work on that for you. 6 (1h 2m 22s): Can we get somebody else to help Deb? There, there we go. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate that. Yeah. Keep your, keep your hands up until everybody has the elements. And then when now, now once you've got the elements, go ahead and get prepared. Meaning trying to locate the clear plastic cellophane on top of the wafer. Try to find that there. And then when you do go ahead and peel that back and get ready and then get started with the next one as well. And just kind of peel that back a little bit and make sure you don't spill it on yourself or your neighbor. And, and then I'm going to read out a first Corinthians 11. 6 (1h 3m 6s): Now communion is a time to refresh ourselves in the Lord. Listen, God has done all of the heavy lifting. When he died on the cross, when God resurrected him from the dead, he did all of the heavy lifting. So if you come heavy to the throne of grace, offload that by simply repenting of your sin, say, Jesus, I, I I'm feeling this burden. And I just want to offload that. Thank you that your grace is sufficient. Maybe you're here today. You've never accepted the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. That grace is as close as the words that you speak. If you simply say Jesus, I need your grace. I need your forgiveness. 6 (1h 3m 46s): I need your life in mine. I need your new life. Would you come into my life? Would you forgive my sin as you do that? God is faithful to respond as you faithfully pray, and you are born again as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When you make your profession of faith, first Corinthians 1123 says for, I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which has given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's go ahead and take the wafer. 7 (1h 4m 33s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you 6 (1h 4m 37s): That you submitted your body to be nailed to the cross 7 (1h 4m 41s): As the perfect sinless spotless lamb of God. You sacrificed your body and poured out your blood for us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for that Lauren. 6 (1h 4m 57s): And the same way he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me, as often as you drink it's for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's go ahead and take the juice. 2 (1h 5m 27s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. We're grateful for 6 (1h 5m 38s): The opportunity to remember what you've done for us. And then to go back and look at the scripture in Colossians and Romans and Psalm 51 and, and learn what it means to honor you with our lives and to trust you with our lives, to understand doctrine and theology Lord, so that we can walk with a clear hearts and clear mind following after you. God, we love you. We thank you for this time. Lord it's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand up and Hey, as we get ready to worship, I just want to say that this is Jim and Judy's last Sunday with us. 6 (1h 6m 20s): And so Jim and Judy both have been man faithful. They've rescued us a number of times. Where's Judy, she around here somewhere here. Okay, good. There she is, have been faithful friends for the last six years, I guess on and yeah, and then you got to lead some songs, right? And we've got a gift over there for you and I'm going to give it to you a second service because if I gave it to you, I'd have to take it back to give it to you your second. So I guess I could do two and a. So we just want to express gratitude for you and Judy, Judy, CA come on up here. 6 (1h 7m 0s): I want to pray over you guys and just love on you. And we are so grateful. So Jim and Judy moved over North, North County and their families over there. And so they're going to be going to church in North County and, and using their gifts and talents over there. And so Lord, we lift them up to you and we pray God that you bless them in Jesus name. God that you'd watch over them in Jesus name, thank you for their gifts and talents, Lord God. And for who they are as human beings, our brothers and our brother and sister in the Lord. We love them. We're thankful for the relationship that we've enjoyed over these last six years. 6 (1h 7m 41s): And we know that that's going to go on for eternity because Christian relationships go on for eternity. And so this is not goodbye. This is just see you later or see us around town and see around bouts. And so we thank you for them. Lord bless them. They are jewels. They're wonderful. And we honor them for all of that. They do. And for who they are, we bless them Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Love you guys. Let me love you a here. 2 (1h 8m 15s): Now you get to try lead worship. 1 (1h 8m 24s): 0 (1h 13m 50s): It's it's been a special one. I think for us here, for me, it has been, but I got this feeling today that it says all the things that I want to say to you guys. It says, I feel loved. I feel safe. And I feel Jesus in this place. And you guys have always made me feel loved and safe and I've always felt Jesus here. I felt Jesus. I feel Jesus pleasure. Every time I'm up here now I'm shaking. And in the last lines I shall be released. I feel like it's just a new season. There's something out there for Judy and I in a new place, new adventures. 0 (1h 14m 36s): And I'm so grateful to finish. Well, I hope 1 (1h 14m 48s): . 9 (1h 19m 46s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your presence here in this place today. And God, we do just release Jim and we blessed him and GED into this next season. God, and just pray that they would just feel like a wave of love. Just wash over them. Even as they leave this place today, they would have sent just you going with them. You go before them, behind them. Thank you for what they've invested here. And God thank you for this church family. I thank you for every household represented, pray God that you would just fill us with your love that we would truly just kind of leak Jesus throughout the week to everyone that we come in contact with that they would just know that we've been in your presence. They would know we're Christians because we love. 9 (1h 20m 27s): So we just bless you. Thank you for your presence in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Awesome guy. Well we yeah, go for it and celebrate. Yeah. So good. Well, we don't. I want to go without saying that if you need prayer this morning, please come on forward. We'd love to have a moment to pray with you. If any needs to come on for Boston staff or volunteers, we'll be here to pray with you, but have a great morning. Make sure to give Jim and Judy lots of love on your way out today. And we'll see you next week. Have a great Sunday.

Speaker - Brad Davis

Welcome to the podcast series called "Common Misconceptions to Christianity." Join Bros. Rodney Hedge and Glen South as they discuss some common misconceptions about Christianity.Today's thought: Christianity Crushes Diversity

Cross Radio Episode 43 | TDN Chapter 6: The Gospel Today This may sound like a sweeping declaration, but this is true: Every Church Leadership, Discipleship Organizations and Believers in General should not miss this episode! The Gospel is at stake and everyone should really be serious in, borrowing from Michael Horton's words, getting the gospel right and getting it out! With these set of questions, we challenge all disciples worldwide to really hold on, hold fast and hold firm to the very message that makes Christianity Christianity. Before Spurgeon died, he fought what we now know as “The Downgrade Controversy”, where he, with all might, fought a lonesome battle against the secularization of those who claim as God's bride, and so the distortion of the gospel. He writes - “No lover of the gospel can conceal from himself the fact that the days are evil. We are willing to make a large discount from our apprehensions on the score of natural timidity, the caution of age, and the weakness produced by pain; but yet our solemn conviction is that things are much worse in many churches than they seem to be, and are rapidly tending downward. Read those newspapers which represent the Broad School of Dissent, and ask yourself, How much farther could they go? What doctrine remains to be abandoned? What other truth to be the object of contempt? A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching. The Atonement is scouted, the inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them!” (Charles Spurgeon, 1887). ___________________ Click, Like and Follow Updates on Cross Radio's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TwisterJoverPh/ ___________________ This is the sixth chapter of our Discipleship Series entitled “The Discipleship Notebook” #CrossRadioPh #TheDisciplesNotebook6 [CrossRadio S01E43] Solus Christos.

Julia McCarthy continues our series on Prepare.

Carl Crocker continues our series on Prepare.

Audio Transcript:You're listening to audio for Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.comHeavenly father, we thank you that you are our father, and Lord, we do not take that for granted. And for those of us who do, Lord, I pray today, reignite in us desire and affections for a relationship with you where we understand that you are father. We don't take that for granted. We understand that we were children of wrath. We understand that we are under your judgment. and still Lord, you came and you poured out your love on us by giving your son. To give your love, to give your forgiveness, to give your grace, you had to first give your son. And you have so loved the world, you have so loved us that you gave your son.Jesus, we thank you that you came and died on the cross for our sin to save us from the condemnation in order to reconcile us with the father. I pray, Holy spirit, show us that if we are your children, born again, regenerated by the spirit, that we are to grow in resemblance with the father, we are to grow in your likeness, in your image, growing, giving, and serving and sacrificing in the same way that you give, serve and sacrifice. Lord, we pray that you bless our time in the Holy scriptures and we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.We're in a sermon series that we are calling menó. And menó comes from the original Greek, Koine Greek. It means to remain, to abide in, to strengthen a relationship by walking in step with the spirit of God. And why are we using this term? Because 24 times in the Epistle of first John, the book we're in, he uses this word, this is a big theme of his book, that what it means to be a Christian isn't just intellectually saying that we believe in God, it's actually to be with God, to live with God, have God abide in you and you and him. And today, the Apostle John focuses our attention on the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, that God is father, son and Holy Spirit, equal in essence and still three individual persons.And one of the things that John wants us to know is that God loves us with a fatherly love. My wife and I, we have four daughters, and I've been a father now for 11 plus years. I tell people I've got a PhD and a half in raising daughters. I'm pretty good at it, not the best, I'm okay, growing at it. We had our first baby when I was 26, when we had Sophia. And Sophia is 11, Elizabeth is eight, Ekaterina just turned five, and Milana is two. I love being a dad, I love it so much. Obviously, it's hard, there's always challenges.Will Ferrell has three sons and he recently was talking about that and he's like, "Actually, raising kids is like operating a mini correctional facility." I'm like, "That's good." He was talking about water cannons. I was like, "Not going to go that far, maybe water pistols." Yes, there's challenges, but there's so many blessings, so many benefits. I made a list of all my favorite stuff about being a dad. Number one, and this list isn't in order of importance, but maybe it is. Number one is I love providing, I love to provide, in particular food. I love watching them eat food that I bought, food that I cooked, that I cut. I love it so much. I don't know what it is, it brings so much joy to my heart.We were cooking steak the other night, Friday night, that's what we do. And I cut up a steak and I put it on a big plate and my daughter Milana, who's two and a half, she didn't point to the little plate that I gave her, she said, "No," pushed the little plate away, pointed to the big plate. Obviously she got the big plate and devoured most of it. It brought joy to my heart. I love that. I love discipling. I love watching them grow. I love teaching them to read. I love caring and nurturing and snuggling. My daughter's very affectionate. My five year old just spontaneously comes out and she says, "Dad, I love you so much. I love you 1,040." Same number every time, I don't know why.And my response is always, "I love you 1040 plus one," and she's like, "Ooh, that's a lot." Same response, we have the same conversation every day. My two year old, I ask her, "How much do you love your dad?" She says two, because that's the only number she knows. I'll take it. I love being a dad. And one of the things that I've noticed is, people come up to us, and my girls are really beautiful and whenever they say, "Oh, your daughters are so beautiful," I always say, "They take after their mom, praise God."But there's a clear physical resemblance of me in them. I look at them I'm like, "Yeah, you're mine," especially my youngest, that is mini me. And one of the things as we raise kids is you do see that they don't just physically resemble you, they begin to resemble you in speech patterns, in humor, they begin to resemble you in character, in self-control, in all the most important things, but in particular the begin to take on or emulate your relationship with the Lord. We want them to emulate us in all the most important things, but in particular in having a relationship with God the Father.And this is what Saint John talks about today, is that we as Christians are made children of God through heart surgery, that God takes out our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, a heart that's numbed her toward God is replaced with a heart that beats for God. Now we have a spiritual DNA, the God's seed is in us and we begin to grow in resemblance of God, and that's what we're talking about today. That's the title of this sermon is Growing in Resemblance of the Father. That God is Father, Jesus is our older brother. One of the things I will mention is, this is what happens to many people. When we hear about God the Father, we begin to measure God the Father through our earthly fathers.And lots of work has been done about the father wound and father issues, and here's the thing, every single one of us has been raised by a fallen father. And I got to be careful here because my dad is actually here in the crowd. What's up pop? If you see the guy who looks like Sean Connery right there, he's right there. Great, great dad, phenomenal dad. But every one of us, we're fallen and we're raised by fallen parents. So there's all these some kinds of dysfunctions. So here's what I ask you to do, despite the pain, do not measure God the Father by your earthly father.Instead, measure your earthly fathers by God the Father. And by the way, the reason why the father wound is so deep for so many people is because in our heart of hearts, we know what a good father should be like. How do we know that? God has planted that in our hearts, he's written that on our hearts so that we don't seek that completely fully in our earthly parents, but in God the Father. And today we're going to look at 1 John 2:28 through 1 John 3:10, so please look at the texts with me. 1 John 2:28. "And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.""If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who practices righteousness ha been born of him." See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.""You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you, whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes the practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sitting from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.""By this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." This is the reading of God's Holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. One big idea in three points, born again to abide, behold the father's love, and three, resemble the father. Here in 0.1, born again to abide. John begins by calling the Christians children. He's not talking to little children per se, he's talking about Christians, who from God's perspective are his kids. And he says, "Abide in him."At the end of verse 29, he says, "Whoever practices righteousness has been born of him." Here he's giving us the doctrine of regeneration. The doctrine is what I mentioned in the beginning that you are born again, you are born to new life, you have a new identity and new responsibilities. Now, when it comes to the term born again Christian, it has all kinds of political undertones. So one of the things I want to do here is just reclaim it from all of that baggage. I was at a lunch yesterday visiting a dear sister who's in a nursing home, she had a pizza party.And whenever I get invited to social events, I'm always seated at the table with the non-believers, be it baby showers or weddings or dinner party, anything. So I'm at the table with the non-Christians because I'm a professional Christian, so that's what I do. So I'm at that table and a lady from the Christian table looks at me and she says, "Oh, you're a pastor?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "Oh, that's great. I'm a born again Christian." And I felt the unease immediately from everyone at my table, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm a little uneasy too." And usually when you think of a born again Christian, there's all kinds of things that come to mind in a flag-waving and etc.What I want to do is I want to show you that from John's perspective, saying born again Christian is like saying Christian, Christian. For John it's the same reality. If you're born again, you are a child of God, you are a Christian. For John, this is what happens when a person becomes a Christian, they are reborn. And that leads to growing resemblance of God the Father. That's why he says whoever has been born again, perfect tense, that person practices righteousness. What comes first? It's being born again. So you practice righteousness, which is what it means to grow in resemblance of the father because you have been born again.The righteous life is evidence of the new life. It's not cause, it's not a condition, it's the effect like begets like, God The Father begets children who are like God the Father. The son of a fish is a fish, the son of a duck is a duck, the son of God is a godly son or daughter, that's what he's saying. And he points out, what does he say? What's the main verb here? What's the imperative? He says, "Little children, abide in him." And this is really important because a lot of people are overwhelmed when they come to Christianity or they're trying to explore Christianity, and they're overwhelmed by all the theology, they're overwhelmed by scripture, which is 1,189 pages in my Bible.Just overwhelmed by all of this, and you feel like you need a graduate degree in Christianity to be a Christian. And he says, "No, you're a child of God. Revel in that." Now what do you do? Just spend time with God, that's what it means to abide in him. You have everything you need for growth in the Lord, and scripture is part of it, you spend in scripture, you spend time in prayer. Just spend time with God. How do children grow in their relationship with their parents? They have conversations, they spend time together. There's the gift of presence where you're present with one another. So as a child of God, abide in him.And he says, "Abiding in God prepares you to meet Christ." And here he starts talking about second coming in verse 28. "Now, little children, abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming, Jesus has come once, he will come again, he will come suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning. Jesus said, "Be prepared for you don't know the hour or day that he comes." New Testament talks about the second coming all the time. One in every 25 verses in the New Testament talks about the second coming. In 260 chapters in the New Testament, it's mentioned 318 times.And every single book of the New Testament except for the particular epistles of Galatians second, third John and Philemon, and he says, "Be prepared. That's how you get prepared, is by abiding in him so that you have confidence so that when he appears," meaning he's already here, that's why he uses that phrase, so that when he appears, meaning he's here, God is omnipresent, but he will physically appear and is coming. As the word Perusia, which in that context meant the coming of an emperor or a King, or Caesar is an event of a lifetime. And he says, People will have two reactions when Christ returns. Either they will be confident, a fearlessness. You're glad that he's here, you're rejoicing that he is here as judge and King because your sins have been judged on the cross because of repentance.And he is your Lord, he is your King and you have been attempting to follow him all of your life, or he says you will shrink back from him in shame. Shrink back from him and shame, meaning there's something to be ashamed of. And he says, "Which one will it be?" Well, are you abiding? And this idea of shrinking back in shame, you've probably experienced this, it's when you haven't been doing what you should be doing. I remember at my first job out of college, I got yelled at by a CEO of the company who was in a meeting. I didn't know that he was the CEO, I know he was in a meeting, and I was buying a car on Craigslist. He saw that on my screen and he yelled at me in front of everybody. So that job didn't work out.And so I learned my lesson. And then my second job, I applied for a job with the government and had to take a polygraph. And it was a four hour pilot polygraph, and by that point I was like, "You guys know everything." I told them everything I had ever done that I thought was wrong, and I was ready for this exam. And I was like, "They can throw nothing at me because I've already told them everything." So it was at peace and I passed the polygraph. That's kind of what repentance is. You come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you confess of all your sins, and you're in confidence because you're abiding in him, so there's transparency.In Proverbs, it says that the righteous are bold as lions, they've got nothing to fear. So faithfulness leads to fearlessness, that's what he's talking about. So are you ready? Are you confident in seeing Christ? And John uses this word confidence four times in this text, twice is the confidence at the second coming, twice is the confidence we have when we pray. The way you prepare for the confidence in the second coming is you're with confidence come to the Lord in daily prayer of confession and adoration and just spending time with the Lord. So abide in the Father, abide in his love. That's what happens when you're born again.The question arises here is, how do I become a child of God? How am I sure that I'm a child of God? And this is 0.2; Behold the father's love. In verse one of chapter three he says, "See what love the father has given us." "Behold," the King James version says, which I think is a word with more gravitas, it's not just the look in, it's the stare at, direct attention, reflect and ruminate upon this amazing love. And he says, "Behold, what kind of love." It's an incredible word that has to do with be amazed It's a sense of wonder he's trying to evoke, "Be in awe." It's only used seven times in the New Testament. Mark 13:1 the disciples with Jesus are walking out of the temple, and as they came out, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, teacher, what wonderful stones. What wonderful buildings, this is all incredible."When Mary heard from the angel that she was going to give birth to the son of God, she said, "What kind of greeting is this?" Another definition of this word is, what kind of world is this message from? It's so unearthly, it's coming from a different planet. And why is John so amazed by this? He's so amazed because we get to call God Father. In all of the Old Testament, not one individual person calls God Father, directs a prayer to God as father, not one. Collectively as Israel they said you are our father, not individually. They called God judge or protector or provider or sustainer or ruler or creator, never father.Jesus Christ comes, revolutionizes our relationship with God, and how does he teach us to pray? Our God in heaven? No. Jesus also doesn't pray to Jesus. Jesus prays to whom? Our father. Our father who art in heaven. Revolutionizes our relationship with God. And he says later, "God doesn't just call us his children. And so we are," he says. He makes his children not just entitled but actually in nature, we become the children of God. And we should be amazed by this, this should be... If John were texting us, if we are in a text chain with John and the Apostle Paul, and John were texting us, he would say, "Behold, the love of God that we are his children. This is how he loves us. Behold, his love."And then you would send us the Paul Rudd meme. I don't know if you've seen the meme or the GIF, whatever, I always mix those up, where he's sitting with someone and he's opening a drink and he says, "Look at us. Look at us." You know that one? I love that one. "Look at us. Who would have thought? Not me." That's the reaction that Christian should have, "Not me. Why? I can't believe that I am a child of God." Now, here's why we don't have that reaction. We don't have that reaction. If I tell you that you're a child of God, you're like, "Yeah, okay." If I tell you that Jesus loves you, you're like, "Yeah, I know. Everyone loves me."It's not shocking to us because we feel like we've earned it, we feel like we deserve it. "God exists, he made me, therefore I'm his kid." And one of the reasons why we believe this is because we have swallowed wholesale liberal theology that came to us in the 18th century, 19th century after the enlightenment and it went like this, it was the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of humanity. And it goes like this, that every single person who's alive, just by virtue of being alive is a child of God. And every single one of us we're brothers and sisters, we're all together, universal brotherhood. And that theology is nowhere to be found in scripture. Why? Because that theology, it jumps over the fall. Yes, God creates us, and Adam and Eve are children of God and then we sinned.Now, scripture says, because of our sin, there's something in between us and God, there's a chasm between us. Therefore, this chasm is the chasm of God's wrath that we deserve for our sin. So God goes from being father to judge. Now, how do we go back to having a relationship with God, the father? And this is what makes Christianity so incredible, that because of Jesus Christ, because God gave his son to bridge that chasm, to absorb the wrath that we deserve for our sin, and by grace through faith in that sacrifice, you can be a child of God, you can be born again.In John 1:12-13 says, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Nor of the will of a man. It's not because you chose to be a child of God, it's because God chose to make you his child. That's what it means to be born again, that we were dead in our sins, meaning we don't deserve any of this. That's why we should marvel. We don't behold, and we don't marvel getting a paycheck. Like if you get paid biweekly or at the end of the month, it gets deposited into your account, you don't look at the deposits like, "Behold, I got paid."You don't do that, because you earned it. And if you are beholding, you're probably stealing from the company. No, you behold at grace, "I did not deserve this." 2 Peter 1:4 says, "By which he has granted to us the precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." Holy scripture teaches that in our flesh we are not children of God because in us there's a corrupt DNA. And actually in this text, he talks about being children of God and children of Satan, that there's godly, divine DNA and there's ungodly, satanic, demonic DNA in each one of us.And before you check out, I know exactly how we react because I preached through this text when we just launched the church. We were like two months in 2011, I preached these texts and I had a guy send me an email. I was reading the email recently and he's like, "I liked everything except for the part where you call the Satan spawn." And I was like, "I just read the Bible verse." Let me just do a little explaining. Who is Satan? Satan was an angel. Satan was the premier being, he was the number two in all of God's army, of all the beings in the universe. He was number two. So what made him Satan? What caused the fall?In Isaiah 14, I can't get into this text now, but go home and read it. In Isaiah 14, we see the progression. He got to the point where he got puffed up with pride and he says, "I will ascend to the throne of God. I will make my throne with the most high. I will be God. I am my own." And in that text you see, I, I, I, I. What made Satan Satan wasn't that he just broke God's law. What made Satan Satan is that he got, attempted God... Get rid of God. He wanted God to worship him instead of worshiping God. And that's the temptation with which he tempted Jesus in the desert. Remember, Jesus is fasting, Satan comes to him and he says, "Fall down and worship me." That's what makes Satan Satan.It isn't just breaking God's law, is trying to get rid of God and putting yourself at the center of the universe, putting yourself on the throne of God. So when you understand that that's the DNA, the DNA of satanic, DNA as John talks about, that it's a selfishness. It's living as if you are God and there is no God as if you are the giver of your own life and sustainer of your own life, that every single good gift that you have is from yourself. Who made you to differ? Scripture says, was it you yourself? No. It was God.And that's what makes this DNA so insidious, there's DNA of spiritual darkness and then you compare it with the DNA of Christ, spiritual DNA, godly DNA, where Jesus Christ in Philippians two it says, "Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing." Satan said, "I will ascend." Jesus said, "I will descend." Taking the form of a servant and coming to serve us and ultimately going to the cross and paying the penalty for our sin to save us. He didn't say, "God serve me." He said, "Father, I'll serve you. I'll worship you, command me."This is like, when you become a Christian, you get this godly DNA in you, but then you got to grow this DNA, so this DNA overpowers the corrupt nature. Then this is the battle between the flesh and the spirit. And I shared this illustration in my newsletter, but one detail I didn't share, if you read the newsletter you... This gentleman Chris long had, he was suffering from leukemia, had a bone marrow transplant, and he was working in as a criminologist in a crime lab. And one of his colleagues said, "Hey, you had a bone marrow transplant, let's test your DNA and see what happened."So they test his DNA and they find, there was his strand of DNA, but then there was the donor strain of DNA, a German gentleman for 5,000 miles away, and that DNA was overpowering his own, so that in many facets in his body, his own wasn't even visible. This idea is called chimera where you have two kinds of DNA. And this is an illustration of what happens, and this is what John is saying. You have this new seed that has been planted in you through the preaching of God's word. Now, you need to grow it by abiding in Christ. In verse one he says, "Look at the love that the father has given us."God loves and he proves his love by giving. Remember John 3:16 the small famous verse in all of scripture, "For God so loved the world that he gave his son." And he says, God gave his son to give us his love, and against the perfect tense of the word, he has given us, and that means it's perfect. You didn't earn it and it can't be withdrawn, when God makes you a child of God, you are a child forever. And he says, "Look, he calls us his children and makes us as children of privilege that he didn't even give to the angels." God could have just forgiven us as judge and that would have been great, but he doesn't just forgive us as judge, he loves us as a father, which is so much greater.Now the reason why John is also very amazed here is because he's writing to a culture where parenthood and fatherhood and motherhood were not honored because children were not treasured. Now, in the Greco Roman world, fathers were aloof, not affectionate, and never equitable, not fair, and a lot of the time children were abused and often left unwanted. The church, father Tertullian talking about... he was writing under the proconsul ship of Tiberius in North Africa. He said, "A lot of children were left to die in the woods or killed through drowning or exposure to cold and hunger and the dogs."In that culture, John is saying, "Look how shocking is, the God is a father who gives and he loves and he's with you always and loves you as a child." And by the way, it's as shocking in our culture where parenthood is diminished and fatherhood is diminished and we live in a culture of abortion are on demand. And as shocking it was to know then that God is father, it's also shocking that God is a great father. Dear Christian, do you understand the fatherhood of God? J. I. Packer wrote this book called Knowing God, which every Christian should read and reread and he's got a chapter on what makes Christianity Christianity.And he says, "I know that a person understands the depth of Christianity by how they pray. Do they pray just to God in general or do they pray to the father, as a child coming and pleading and conversing and just enjoying the relationship with God." And the other thing before I move on to point three, why is John bringing this up now? Why focus the attention on the father's love, that God is loving and that we are children? Well, he says this in the second part of 1 John 3:1, says, "The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him." The reason why the world doesn't know us is that it did not know him. And the reason why he mentions that is because they don't feel like God is with them, they don't feel that God is present. They don't feel like they were in God's hands because they're suffering at the hands of the world.They're asking question, if God is a good father, why is there suffering? Why is there schism in the church? Why is the world so sinister and hostile? And he said, "Look, if the world is being hostile to you as his children, is because are first hostile to God the Father. They don't know him. Like you love God the Father so much and you can't believe that other people don't love this great God. That's how we feel. But he says, "You need to understand that they're on the other side and they don't see this. They don't understand this relationship." And that's why we share the gospel with them and show them how great the father's love is.A former member of the church texted me recently and he texted me a meme of a pie chart. And the pie chart had three parts. And the first part it said 1%... It's a football metaphor by the way, sorry. 1% is San Francisco fans who are going to root for San Francisco in the Super Bowl. 2% is the chiefs fans who are going to root for Kansas city in the Super Bowl. And then said 98%, the rest of the country who's just glad that the Patriots aren't in the Superbowl. And he said that to me as a jab. And I was like, "I just don't understand. I'm on the right team. How can you not love the right team? Sorry for equating the Patriots with God the father, from all metaphor's breakdown.But that's what he's saying, the world doesn't understand. So we love them and we pray for them, and we ask for the Holy spirit to regenerate them, but we still keep shining God's light and we keep spreading God's love because that's what the father does. And the more that we resemble the father, and this is point three, the more that the people around us will long to know the father. So verses two of chapter three he says, "Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is." And this is incredible. That DNA, that seed of God in you, that divine nature that's in you, he's saying, ultimately it will be brought to completion or combination and we will be like him.We will not just be called children of God, we will be like him, not just act like him, but be like him in nature. And that hope of one day having a sinless body and this is the doctrine of glorification in heaven, that hope of being with the Lord in a sinless body gives us strength in verse three, to purify ourselves, "And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." In 1 John chapter one he said, "Whoever confesses their sin, you can be sure that God is faithful and just to cleanse you from all sin." To forgive you and cleanse you, to purify you. And now he says that, "Because you've been purified by Christ, we are to purify ourselves." It sounds like a contradiction in terms, it is not.And you know the adage, God helps those who help themselves? I'm sure you've heard that. It's false. It's a false theology. And this idea that God shows up when you've done everything you possibly can. That's not how the world works. That's not how Christianity works. It begins with God helps you, God purifies you, God gives you a new birth and then he equips you to purify yourself. So if I could change that, I would say God helps you to help yourself. Not God helps those who help themselves. It begins with God doing 99.99% and then the other 0.09% he equips you to do. But we are to purify ourselves. Can we be absolutely pure of sin in this world? No.But, the sign that we actually have a new life is the fact that we want to grow in grace. The more intimate your relationship with God, the more you're exposed to his light, the more the light exposes your darkness. The closer you get to the light, the more darkness that you see. So he's purified you, so now you have access to the light. You abide in him, and then you see more and more darkness. So, you thought the sins that you were dealing with were bad and God gives you strength to overcome and you purify yourself because he's purified you more, and then you go deeper and deeper and deeper. And this tension is always here.On the one hand, we understand we're fallen sinners. On the other hand, we understand we're children of God and we are to grow in resemblance. And we do that every single day by grace, through faith and repentance. But this is really important because some traditions of Christianity focus all the attention on you purifying yourself. How's your week? Were you perfect? Did you sin? Oh, if you sinned, you lost your salvation, that's terrible. And John says, "But you're a child of God. God doesn't lose children. He doesn't divorce children, he's adopted you for eternity. That's the rule. Other traditions are all about you're saved by grace through faith and Jesus died for all of your sins on the cross so you can live any way you want. God loves to forgive, you love to sin. You get to do what you want, he gets to do what he wants.And John says, "No. If you've become a child of God, you hate sin and you grow in hating sin and you want to purify yourself." How? You do that through practicing, and that's the phrase that he uses in verse seven, and he says, "Little children, no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous." It's a matter of practicing that the more we practice a thing, the easier it becomes. The more I practice not working out, the easier it is to not work out. The same thing with food, the same thing with anything. But once you get in a routine, it gets easier and easier because your willpower isn't used because it become a part of your character. And he says that the people of lawlessness or the people of the satanic DNA, they practice lawlessness, it becomes easier and easier and easier. And he said, we got to do the opposite.In verse eight he says, "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, of the evil one." And again, it gets back to this idea of lawlessness and he separates sitting and lawlessness. Sinning is transgressing God's law. Lawlessness is getting rid of God and getting rid of his law. And if you're like, "I don't know about sin, I don't know about transgressing commandments." Well, the question that John will put before you is, what are you living for? Like what is the ultimate purpose of your life? What do you find more worthy of your time, of your money, of your talents than anything else?Well, whatever the thing is that you're living for, whatever you find more worthy than anything. That is what you're worshiping. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, it could be a good thing. And you take the good thing and you put it in place of God and now it becomes a bad thing. Worship is building your life or meaning on anything other than God. The other thing before we close, I just want to deal with this, verse six and verse nine he says, "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. " Verse nine, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning." And a lot of Christians read that and they're like, "What does that mean about my faith? Like I have sinned."And again, the emphasis is on the practice, it's on the personality. It's on what's progressive on the life pattern, on the character. What are you practicing? What is the habit of your life? What is the culture of your life, the ethos of your life? Is it the same as the ethos of the father's family? Is your life resembling the father. And I'll close it with this illustration from F. F. Bruce. Every family has rules, every organization has a culture. And my family, I tell my girls, there's only two real rules. Rule number one, no screaming, rule number two, no complaining. The screaming one, you can make, we live in Boston and we have neighbors on three sides of us, so don't scream and I don't like it either.Complaining biblically speaking, God punished Israel for 40 years and made them walk around in the desert in circles because they complained. So don't do that. No screaming, no complaining. We don't do that here. Now, I use that phrase all the time with my daughters, we don't do that here. And in response you could say, "I just did that here." And that's kind of what John is getting at. And so F. F. Bruce, I'll close with this illustration and then we'll pray. F.F. Bruce was a New Testament scholar in the 20th century, probably the greatest in the 20th century. And he went to this private school that was founded in the year 1224. 1224 school of tradition.And in his commentary in first John, he talks about, in the school, whenever a student would act out or disobey or misbehave, what the teachers would say is, "We don't do that here." And F. F. Bruce was like, "I just did that. I was just saying, I just did that." And then he concludes and he says this, "But the literalist might reply, "But obviously it is done. This boy has just done it, but he would be deliberately missing the point of the rebuke. The point of the rebuke is such that this conduct is disapproved of in this school, so anyone who practices it can normally be assumed not to belong to the school."Fellowship with the sinless one and indulgence in sin are a contradiction in terms. We don't do that here. As part of this family. We don't, we don't abide in sin, we abide in the savior. So for the Christian, we're born again to abide. And how do we abide? We behold the father's love, and that's what allows us to resemble the father. If you're not a Christian, today, look to the father, look to Christ, look to the Holy Spirit, beg God to forgive you of your sins and turn to him in faith. And at that moment, and when you do a wholeheartedly, he will pour out his love into your heart, you will be regenerated and you become a child of God. So as we pray now, you're welcome to do that and we ask you to do that. Let's pray.Heavenly father, we thank you for grace and we thank you for the gospel. We thank you father, that to give us your love, gave your son for us. We thank you Jesus, that you were willing to give your life for us to make us children of the father. And we thank you that you are our older brother and you are your brother's keeper. And we thank you Holy Spirit, that you are here with us now, and I pray that you grow us, each one of us, in our obedience to you, in our abiding in you, so that we continue to resemble the father. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

The Thinking Fellows finish their six part series on Christianity in America led by Dan van Voorhis. Dan talks about the second half of the 20th century and how it has led to the current cloudy question of where Christianity is headed. Covered in this episode is the rise of evangelicals, religious nones, and the resurgence of high church worship. Sit back, relax, grab a drink, and enjoy the show.  Show Notes: Support the Thinking Fellows Christian History Almanac The Soul of Christianity  4 Things You Loose when You Leave Christianity   

Imagine your child goes off to a “Christian” college…and only then you learn that the president of the school doesn’t even believe in the resurrection and other essential elements of what makes Christianity Christianity.  Well, if they went to Union Theological Seminary – a seminary no less – that’s what you’d have. And I simply say this to underscore the importance of your mission, our mission together. Remember when Paul said that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead in a bodily resurrection, we’re all idiots? (1 Co 15) The only way we get there is to call the Bible a collection of nice ideas, but some of them aren’t so nice, so we’ll just say something like “my God is a God of love and is bigger than all that.” Bible segment: Reading along with The Bible Project Today’s personal prayer reading: Psalm 117 Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible) Our reading: Isaiah 36-39 Apologetics segment: Gary Habermas and Jesus’ uniqueness Find these notes at forthehope.com Gary Habermas, “The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ Among the Major World Religions” (Lynchburg, VA: GaryHabermas.com, 2016). http://www.garyhabermas.com/Evidence2/Habermas-Uniqueness-of-Jesus-Christ-2016.pdf. Accessed April 17, 2019. Twitter: @joinforthehope Instagram: @joinforthehope

All that we have said so far about the Apostles Creed sounds pretty good to modern ears. But today we come to the line that is unsettling in every culture. Today we come to the watershed line. Today we move from vague religion to the particulars of Jesus. Did the early church really think Jesus was God, or rather a great teacher ? Which do you think was easier - for these ancient people or for our scientific age to believe Jesus was God? The answer may surprise you as we study the full depth of each of the words in this crucial phrase that makes Christianity Christianity. For a visual version of this sermon, go to http://www.southridgeworship.com/apostles_creed_resources.htm