Gathering Recap - 03/30/2025 - Exodus 14:5-31 - Deliverance and Doubt

Call to worship:

1 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
    before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
    for you have exalted above all things
    your name and your word.[a]
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
    my strength of soul you increased.

Psalm 138:1-3

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What points of view are there in this story?

In the face of fear, what are the clear commands of God?

If growing in trust means patience, perseverance, and obedience, what is God calling you to today?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you that you are the God who makes a way. You are the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You keep steadfast love for thousands, forgive iniquity, transgression and sin; but will by no means clear the guilty. As we follow Your Son and our savior Jesus, please empower us with your Spirit to work and wait well, where you have placed us.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 14:5-31

“The story of God is the story of salvation, centered on the One whose name means “Yahweh is salvation,” and here is what that looks like: deliverance from slavery and certain death, announced by faith, and received as a gift through trust and obedience.” - Chris Wright

“With our modern curiosity, we tend either to explain the phenomenon (and deny the miracle) or to think of it solely in miraculous terms (and resist any natural causation). Our text, however, sees the event from both perspectives as equally valid. On the one hand, the Bible itself provides a perfectly natural explanation. A combination of wind and movement of the sea caused a dry corridor for a temporary period, long enough for Israel to get to the other side. On the other hand, who rules the wind and the waves? We have just read the whole narrative of the natural disasters inflicted on Egypt by Yahweh using the forces of creation for his own purposes. This event, no matter what the natural causes, was Yahweh’s doing (he caused the wind to drive back the sea) through Moses’s agency (he stretched his hand and raised his staff). Two other points turn this natural event into a miracle of salvation: first, that it should happen at precisely the time when the Israelites needed it to; and second, that the danger surrounding them was only too evident—the sea was still there in the threatening darkness (the walls of water on either side) but was held back long enough for all to cross in safety.” Chris Wright

Ezk 18:23

Prov 3:6-7

“The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise.” Brennan Manning

“Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time with him.” Zach Eswine

Gathering Recap - 03/23/2025 - Exodus 12:1-13 - Passover

Call to worship:

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
25 he who gives food to all flesh,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:23-26

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Why the pause in the narrative for the passover?

What is the significance of the passover and intentionality with the symbols?

How does the passover point us to Christ?

What liturgies today can help us regularly remember our redemption?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you that you are the God who makes a way. You are the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You keep steadfast love for thousands, forgive iniquity, transgression and sin; but will by no means clear the guilty. As we follow Your Son and our savior Jesus, please empower us with your Spirit to work and wait well, where you have placed us.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 12:1-13 - Jon

Exodus 12:1-13

“Liturgies aim our love to different ends precisely by training our hearts through our bodies.”. - James K.A. Smith

Exodus 12:29-32

13:17-22

Whenever Israel returned to God in such times of national repentance, covenant renewal, or restoration, they returned to the foundational historic event of their national existence—the event on which their identity and faith was founded: God’s great demonstration of compassion, justice, and redemption, the exodus. They needed to be shaped again by the story that had first shaped them and respond to its promise and its demand in renewed worship and obedience. They needed to tell and hear again the story they were in, the story of God and God’s people, and then live in the light of it.For us, individually or as Christian communities, times of revival and renewal will always include going back to the cross and resurrection of Christ, back to the redemption story that defines the good news for us and the world, the story that shapes our identity, our mission, and our future. As it was for Israel, the road to renewal and restoration for us has to be the road of remembrance. For even as Christians, we so easily forget the story we are in. We need, just as much as the Israelites, to hear and tell again and again the story of God, the foundational biblical narrative of our redemption, and then live in the light of it. Chris Wright

Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings - James KA Smith

Gathering Recap - 03/16/2025 - Exodus 7:1-13 - There Will Be Frogs

Call to worship:

13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
15 but overthrew[a] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136:13-16

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What’s your approach to the judgement and justice of God? How is it good news?

What are the main things being shown through the plagues?

How does Jesus connect us to the justice of God?

In what ways does the coming final judgement bring about hope?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you that you are the God who makes a way. You are the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You keep steadfast love for thousands, forgive iniquity, transgression and sin; but will by no means clear the guilty. As we follow Your Son and our savior Jesus, please empower us with your Spirit to work and wait well, where you have placed us.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 7:1-13 - Chris

Exodus 7:1-13

2 Tim 3:16-17

“One could object that it is not worthy of God to wield the sword. Is God not love, long-suffering and all-powerful love? A counter-question could go something like this: Is it not a bit too arrogant to presume that our contemporary sensibilities about what is compatible with God’s love are so much healthier than those of the people of God throughout the whole history of Judaism and Christianity? If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make the final end to violence God would not be worthy of our worship.” - Mirolsav Volf

6:6-8

“How are we to interpret all this? With humility, would be a good place to start. There is (and always will be) a mystery in holding together the sovereignty of God and human moral responsibility for our own willed choices and actions. Yet we must, without hesitation, insist that the Bible affirms both, frequently and unequivocally, however difficult it is for us to reconcile them in our human logic” - Chris Wright

“The entire created order is caught up in this struggle, either as cause or victim. Pharaoh’s antilife measures have unleashed chaotic powers that threaten the very creation that God intended.… Water is no longer water; light and darkness are no longer separated; diseases of people and animals run amok; insects and amphibians swarm out of control. And the signs come to a climax in the darkness, which in effect returns the creation to the first day of Genesis 1, a precreation state of affairs. While everything is unnatural in the sense of being beyond the bounds of the order created by God, the word hypernatural (nature in excess) may better capture the sense. The plagues are hypernatural at various levels—timing, scope, intensity. Some sense of this is also seen in the recurrent phrases to the effect that such “had never been seen before, nor ever shall be again” (10:14 cf. 10:6; 9:18, 24; 11:6). Terence Fretheim

“It cannot be accidental that God used ten plagues to teach the Egyptians that he is sovereign and that their gods were of no account. At the time of the exodus, both the Israelites and the Egyptians used a decimal counting system, which meant that the number ten tended to connote a full, complete, sufficient quantity of anything being explicitly enumerated. A run-through of the whole decimal list from one to ten provided more than enough demonstration of God’s power over Egypt for anyone to get the message.” Doug Stuart

“after six occasions of pharaoh hardening his own heart, we at last read that God hardens his heart, it is not so much that God is causing him to make those choices but that God gives him up to the choices he has shown himself determined to make and allows the consequences to take their course” Chris Wright

Romans 12:14-21

Gathering Recap - 03/09/2025 - Exodus 5:1-9, 6:1-8 - Battle of the Gods

Call to worship:

10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136:10-12

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Moses shows us a pathway for our disappointment and discouragement. What is it?

How does God stand by His covenant?

What word(s) does the cross say to our waiting?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you that you are the God who makes a way. You are the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You keep steadfast love for thousands, forgive iniquity, transgression and sin; but will by no means clear the guilty. As we follow Your Son and our savior Jesus, please empower us with your Spirit to work and wait well, where you have placed us.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 5:1-9, 6:1-8 - Scott Reading

Title: Battle Of The Gods

“The exodus is a battle of the gods, in which only one can emerge from the ring victorious…The conflict between the deities: Egypt's against Israel's, the false against the true, the serpent against the seed, Pharaoh against the Lord. It is a mismatch. Battles against the Lord always are.”

—Alistair J. Roberts & Andrew Wilson, Echos Of Exodus, (pg. 41)

“Their words in 5:1 have all the hallmarks of a bold prophetic word, beginning with the classic “Thus says Yahweh” (author’s translation) and framed as a simple imperative, “let my people go.” At first reading it sounds impressively courageous as a direct word from God. Except that it was not. That speech in verse 1 was not actually what God had told Moses to say to pharaoh, and the narrator knows this, since he records Moses and Aaron reverting in verse 3 to the words God had actually given Moses in 3:18. — Christopher Wright

“That “long tradition” includes not only Job and the writers of many a psalm of lament, not only the poet who produced the prolonged and searingly poignant protest called Lamentations, but also the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 19) and, especially, Jeremiah, whose depression and desperation lead to outbursts of astonishing honesty, some of which employ Moses’s imploring “Why …?” (e.g., Jer 12:1–4; 15:10–21; 20:7–17). That “Why …?”—echoing through the pain of so many in the Old Testament—is heard from the cross at the moment of that greater exodus that Christ accomplished there. And indeed, it was a “Why …?” taken straight from the Scriptures that shaped Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34; Ps 22:1). We know why. And Jesus, too, knew why. He was doing what he had come to do, bearing in his own divine-human self the full and terrible weight and cost and consequences of the sin of the world. But the agony of doing so draws forth this cry of dereliction. Even in the silence of heaven at that moment, we may hear the echo of exactly what God said in answer to the “Why?” that Moses asked.”

- Christopher Wright

"Standing on business" means to firmly prioritize your responsibilities, commitments, and personal values in a professional or serious manner, essentially indicating a dedication to taking care of your business and following through on your words with actions; it implies a sense of duty, assertiveness, and a no-nonsense attitude towards achieving goals.” 

- Google Ai

“God just gets on with business. This is really good news for you and me because sometimes we lack faith in God, we lack enthusiasm, and we're not sure if God is going to make good on his promises. God's promises however, do not depend on us, they depend on him. And so, even if we're in a period of discouragement, we're not in danger of derailing God's plan. God will carry out the promises that he made with or without our participation. And here, God isn't just going to save the ones who are on his side and who are excited, he is going to save all of the Hebrews. He's giving them time to come around and by the time they leave Egypt, they will be on board and he will be able to rescue them.”

- Dr. Carmen Imes

Gathering Recap - 03/02/2025 - Exodus 3:1-6 - God With Us

Call to worship:

7 to him who made the great lights,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136:7-9

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Exodus gives us a picture of waiting and watching? What do you think that was like for Moses, how has that been for you?

In knowing God, how do we better understand ourselves?

How can only looking in become a danger that prevents us from looking up and out?

What significance does God bring to “small hours?”

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you that you are the God who makes a way. You are the Lord who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. As we follow Your Son and our savior Jesus, please empower us with your Spirit to work and wait well, where you have placed us.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Text: Exodus 3:1-6

Title: God With Us

“What Moses does mean by this? Did he mean that he became a foreigner to those who no longer accepted him? To the Egyptians, the Hebrews, or that now he's in Midian and he doesn't belong here either? Moses is a misfit and he has this hybrid identity that doesn't really belong.”

— Dr. Carmen Imes

“What is the significance of the fire’s being in the bush but not of the bush? It indicates that the fire Moses saw was independent of the bush—it was not using the bush for its fuel. That’s why the bush wasn’t consumed. It was burning from its own power. It was self-generated. This is a biblical example of what we call theophany, meaning “God made manifest.” The God whom we worship is a spirit. He is invisible, and His invisible substance cannot be seen by the human eye. But there are occasions in redemptive history where the invisible God makes Himself visible by some kind of manifestation. That is called a theophany, and it’s what we see with the burning bush.” — R.C. Sproul

“God is not only identifying himself as Yahweh, the God who made a covenant with Abraham to bless him and multiply him and bring him into the land and make him be a blessing to all nations. Not only is He that God, but at the same time He’s defining who Moses is. He belongs in that covenant people and the God of his father is that God, the God Yahweh. So he's grown up in an Egyptian context where there are lots of deities, lots of temples, lots of priests worshiping these different deities, and in his first encounter with God he finds out simultaneously who God is, and who he is, and that settles things for him. Going forward, his hybrid identity gets resolved and I think this is how it works actually for all of us. When we come to fully encounter the God of the Bible (Yahweh who revealed himself in Jesus)…as we come to know Yahweh we come to know ourselves. There's no real way to know who we are outside of knowing who God is, who God has created us to be, and who He's called us to be.” — Dr. Carmen Imes

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distill to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility.” — John Calvin

“Yahweh is and always will be “God with”—God with those who faithfully obey his sending; God with his people in good times and bad; God with the poor and needy in their affliction; and eventually, Immanuel, “God with us.” —Christopher Wright

Questions:

1. Can I celebrate the slow nature of character building?

2. Am I attempting to know myself apart from looking outward and upward?

3. Have I truly encountered the God who is with me?

Gathering Recap - 02/23/2025 - Exodus 1:1-25 - Subversive Sovereignty

Call to worship:

4 to him who alone does great wonders,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 to him who by understanding made the heavens,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136:4-6

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Exodus 2 gives detail, but not all filled in. How do you imagine the narrative unfolding?

How is God’s sovereignty often subversive?

In what ways does seeing the story of scripture and character of God steady our lives today?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 2:1-25

“The one universal balm for the trauma of war was tea. It was the thing that helped people cope. People made tea during air raids and after air raids, and on breaks between retrieving bodies from shattered buildings. Tea bolstered the network of thirty thousand observers who watched for German aircraft over England, operating from one thousand observation posts, all stocked with tea and kettles. Mobile canteens dispensed gallons of it, steaming, from spigots. In propaganda films, the making of tea became a visual metaphor for carrying on. “Tea acquired almost a magical importance in London life,” according to one study of London during the war. “And the reassuring cup of tea actually did seem to help cheer people up in a crisis.” Tea ran through Mass-Observation diaries like a river. “That’s one trouble about the raids,” a female diarist complained. “People do nothing but make tea and expect you to drink it.” - Erik Larson

Heb 11:23

God’s story is not one in which individuals or whole nations are simplistically portrayed as immutably good or bad. People change, times change—and the only constant is that God works in and through the see-saw and reversals of history to accomplish his purpose. - Chris Wright

“If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.” - D.A. Carson

Waiting requires living by what I know to be true about God when I don’t know what’s true about my life. - Mark Vroegop

2 Peter 3:8-13

Gathering Recap - 02/16/2025 - Exodus 1:7-22 - God Makes a Way

Call to worship:

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136:1-3

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

How does Exodus connect to Genesis? What themes a picture repeat?

“God makes a way.” In what ways do you see that in Exodus 1? How about your own life?

What themes from Exodus do you see repeating in Jesus?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Exodus 1:7-22

Books do not usually begin with the word “And.” But Exodus does, in the Hebrew text, and so do Leviticus and Numbers: the second, third, and fourth books of the Bible. You would not know this from most modern English translations, presumably because it is not considered good literary style to begin a sentence, never mind a whole book, with “And.” In Hebrew, however, although these are clearly whole books in their own right, each of them begins in a way that clearly connects them altogether as part of one long story that began in Genesis and stretches to the borders of the promised land by the end of Numbers. Deuteronomy, however, begins with a fresh telling of the same story and ends where it started, so does not need the connecting and forward-moving opening word “And.” - Chris Wright

The Pentateuch as a whole—the Torah—constituted the foundation of Old Testament Israel’s faith and identity, and the book of Exodus sets in place some of the largest theological blocks within that foundation. It showed Israel who their God was, who they were as God’s people, how God’s desire was to dwell in their midst, and how the grace of God was the only guarantee that their journey with God (or rather, God’s journey with them) could continue - Chris Wright

“Ironically, Genesis presents the mother of all Israelites oppressing an Egyptian slave, while Exodus presents an Egyptian king oppressing Israelites as slaves. To that degree, Sarah foreshadows pharaoh’s role, just as Hagar’s story prefigures Israel’s story” - Victor Hamilton

“The pogrom has reached its height. All Egypt has been recruited to destroy the population explosion of the enemy” Brevard Childs

The first exodus comes in the midst of a plot that should be familiar to anyone who has read the garden story in Genesis. The people of Israel are fruitful and multiply and fill the land, but the serpent-like king is tricksy, and he attacks the women, with a view to destroying their male descendants. Yet in contrast to the garden story, the women outmaneuver him. - Alastair Roberts

The unmissable proclamation heard in the openings of all four gospels, then, is simply this: “God is doing it again!” The God of Abraham is keeping his promise. The God of Moses is confronting the world’s pharaohs. The God of the exodus is on the way to save his people. Except that the ultimate confrontation and victory will not come about by God sending plagues upon the Romans but by God the Son becoming the Passover lamb, his flesh broken and his blood shed on the cross for the redemption not only of Israel but of people from all nations who put their trust in him. From this point on, the New Testament is replete with echoes of exodus and new-exodus themes, along with its references to the covenant and law given at Sinai, and the tabernacle - Chris Wright

Gathering Recap - 02/09/2025 - Ephesians 4:1-6 - The Spirit and the Church

Call to worship:

1 Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
    who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place
    and bless the Lord!

3 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
    he who made heaven and earth!

Psalm 134:1-3

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

If unity is available in the Spirit, why does divisiveness seem to be so common?

How does God’s ability to keep and love us inform and shape our relating to one another?

Where is the Spirit promised and how do we enter into those places?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Eph 4:1-6

“Not only (1) is their unity expressly stated as coming from the Spirit, but (2) four of the five graces listed in vv. 2–3 are among the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:22–23; and (3) in the Trinitarian confession that follows, pride of place is given to the Spirit, precisely because the one body, which is Paul’s present concern, is the result of their common experience of the one Spirit, whose presence in their lives is also the predicate of their one hope.” - Gordon Fee

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn. 17:20&21)

“Put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:25-32)

“We cannot expect the world to believe the Father sent the Son, that Jesus' claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.”

- Francis Schaffer, The Mark of the Christian

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:”

(1 Cor. 1:2)

“This is highly instructive. This mess of a church whose meetings did more harm than good is still a real, legitimate church. It is a church of God…This church is composed of "those sanctified in Christ Jesus." A saint is not a special kind of Christian, someone who has been through some sort of spiritual finishing school. A saint is another word for a Christian. In Christ we are sanctified in the sense of already having been set apart by God to be his people and needing to learn—bit by bit, day by day—how to live out what that actually means. Paul goes on to say that these Corinthian believers have been "called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord." Their own individual status in Christ connects each of them not only to the rest of their own church but even more widely to all who name the name of Jesus as they do. There is something unavoidably corporate involved in calling on Christ. He is the common Lord they all share—“both theirs and ours.”

- Sam Allberry

“The church is wholly constituted of those saints that are his jewels, that are the spoils of his enemies, that were once his enemies' possession, but that he has redeemed out of their hands.”

- Jonathan Edwards

“The Spirit delivers Christ to us not just anywhere and in any way but where and how he has promised. Although he is free to work outside of his covenanted mercies, we are assured of his saving blessings and presence only where he has been promised to us. If we identify the Spirit only with the unexpected and irregular, we will miss most of the times and places where he actually meets us.” —Michael Horton

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Eph. 4:4-6)

Gathering Recap - 02/02/2025 - 1 Corinthians 12:1-14 - The Spirit and Gifts

Call to worship:

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
    my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
    too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
    like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 131:1-3

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What clarity does the scripture give us on the empowering of the Spirit? Why do we see such confusion?

How have you seen God gifting and empowering you to glorify Jesus?

Why are we called to be continually filled with the Spirit? What does that look like?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

1 Cor 12:1-14 -

Ex 31:1-5

Joel 2:28-29,

Ezekiel 36:25-27

Christian faith has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them - Julian, appx 360ad

They look too much to man's efforts, and know not how the second blessing is nothing more nor less than a new vision of what Christ is willing to work in us, and the surrender of faith that yields all to Him - Andrew Murray

We are commanded to be full, and yet we are not the filler; the Spirit is. The answer to this predicament in the New Testament is that God has ordained to move into our lives with fullness through faith. The pathway that the Spirit cuts through the jungle of our anxieties into the clearing of joy is the pathway of faith. Luke says of Stephen in Acts 6:5, that he was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and he says of Barnabas in Acts 11:24 that he was “a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” The two go together. If a person is filled with faith, he will be filled with the Spirit, the Spirit of joy and peace. - John Piper

Romans 12:3-10

Eph 4:30

Gathering Recap - 01/26/2025 - Romans 8:12-17 - The Spirit and Redemption

Call to worship:

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning,
    more than watchmen for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
    and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
    from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130:5-8

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

How are the benefits of Christ applied to our lives?

The Spirit not only regenerates us, but re-orders our loves. How have your loves and desires been transformed? How about your relationships?

In what ways does the work of the Spirit show us the difference between religion and the gospel?

What does repentance and faith look like for your this week?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Romans 8:12-17 - Jack

“How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son—not for Christ's own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men?”

- John Calvin

“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (Jn. 16:7&8)

Regeneration: “mighty work of God by which unbelievers are given a new nature, being born again.... It is both (1) the removal of one's old self, and (2) the imparting of a new self that is responsive to God. Unlike conversion, which is the human response to the gospel, regeneration is completely a divine work, to which human beings contribute nothing.”

- Greg Allison

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

(John 3:2-8)

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

(Titus 3:3-7)

“To love you as I should, I must worship God as Creator. When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”

― C.S. Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

(Romans 8:9-11)

“Justification is the "mighty act of God by which he declares sinful people not guilty but righteous instead. He does so by imputing, or crediting, the perfect righteousness of Christ to them. Thus, while they are not actually righteous, God views them as being so because of Christ's righteousness." Thus, justification is a forensic act, a legal declaration, consisting of two elements. "The first aspect is the forgiveness of sins, resulting from Christ's substitutionary death (Rom. 3:25; 5:9). The second is imputation, resulting from Christ's obedience that makes people righteous (5:18-29). The New Testament ties justification to the Holy Spirit in one passage, in which an absolute contrast is made between "the unrighteous, [who] will not inherit God's kingdom" (1 Cor 6:9), and believers: "And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God' (6:11).” — Greg Allison

“14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14)

“The Spirit does not enter hearts that prepare him room or sweep the floor and dust before his arrival (an optimistic set of tasks to expect of the dead); rather, he enters, hovers, infuses life, gives faith, and begins immediately to renovate the mansion in which he once breathed merely the natural (i.e., biological) life but now breathes the breath of eschatological—new creation—life.” — Michael Horton

Gathering Recap - 01/19/2025 - Luke 4:14-30 - Christ and The Spirit

Call to worship:

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2     O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
    that you may be feared..

Psalm 130:1-4

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What do you notice about the triune God in the baptism of Jesus?

Jesus deals with temptation and the devil directly. What do we learn about dependency and fighting temptation?

What tools and resources did Jesus have in connection with the Spirit that are available for us today?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Luke 4:16-30 - Mike Reading

Aren't you, like me, hoping that some person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire? Don't you often hope: 'Maybe this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.' But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death. - Henri Nouwen

Stones into Bread

The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here
The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.
When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.
Now He must dare, with us, to make a choice.
In a distended belly’s cruel curve
He feels the famine of the ones who lose
He starves for those whom we have forced to starve
He chooses now for those who cannot choose.
He is the staff and sustenance of life
He lives for all from one Sustaining Word
His love still breaks and pierces like a knife
The stony ground of hearts that never shared,
God gives through Him what Satan never could;
The broken bread that is our only food.

The Kingdoms of this World

‘So here’s the deal and this is what you get:
The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,
The banker’s bonus and the private jet
Control and ownership of all the news
An ‘in’ to that exclusive one percent,
Who know the score, who really run the show
With interest on every penny lent
And sweeteners for cronies in the know.
A straight arrangement between me and you
No hell below or heaven high above
You just admit it, and give me my due
And wake up from this foolish dream of love…’
But Jesus laughed, ‘You are not what you seem.
Love is the waking life, you are the dream.’

On The Pinnacle

‘Temples and Spires are good for looking down from;
You stand above the world on holy heights,
Here on the pinnacle, above the maelstrom,
Among the few, the true, unearthly lights.
Here you can breathe the thin air of perfection
And feel your kinship with the lonely star,
Above the shadow and the pale reflection,
Here you can know for certain who you are.
The world is stalled below, but you could move it
If they could know you as you are up here,
Of course they’ll doubt, but here’s your chance to prove it
Angels will bear you up, so have no fear….’
‘I was not sent to look down from above
It’s fear that sets these tests and proofs, not Love.’

John 14:15-17

John 14:25-26

John 16:7-15

“You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer; and a simple Bible reader and sermon hearer who is full of the Holy Spirit will develop a far deeper acquaintance with his God and Savior than a more learned scholar who is content with being theologically correct.” JI Packer

Gathering Recap - 01/12/2025 - Genesis 1:1-2 - The Spirit and Creation

Call to worship:

1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
    which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
    so the Lord surrounds his people,
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 125:1-2

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

How has the Holy Spirit animated all of creation? How does this perspective shape a “well rounded life?”

In what ways is God calling you to live into a more responsible dominion?

How do we move from the artistry to the artist?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the gift of salvation found in Your Son Jesus. We're grateful that your plan includes a Helper in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Would you graciously grant us that power promised, to filled and sent with your truth and love to the world around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Genesis 1:1-2 - Faith Reading

“The Spirit is not the architect, nor is the framework of the cosmos or of the new creation “in him” as is true of the Word in whom all things hold together (Col 1:17). But he is the builder, carrying with him the plans of the Father and the materials purchased by the Son as he builds the sanctuary according to all that he has received…When we begin with the Spirit’s work in creation, the canvas of his operations widens.”

- Michael Horton

These all look to you,
 to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up;  when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die
 and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
 and you renew the face of the ground.

- Psalm 104:27-30

“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” - Job 33:4

“The redemptive Spirit is cut off both from bodily life and from the life of nature. It makes people turn away from this world and hope for a better world beyond. They then seek and experience in the Spirit of Christ a power that is different from the divine energy of life which according to Old Testament ideas interpenetrates all the living. The theological textbooks talk about the Holy Spirit in connection with God, faith, the Christian life, the church and prayer, but seldom with the body and nature."

- Jurgen Moltmann

“There is something to the pagan love of nature, even its myths and rituals tied to the changing seasons. However, biblical faith grounds this instinct in a transcendent and triune God who is ever active even in the regularities of nature. What is striking in all of the Old Testament references to creation is the pure naturalness of nature. Nothing in creation is to be worshiped but rather is meant to lead us from the artistry to the Artist.”

- Michael Horton

Gathering Recap - 12/29/2024 - 2 Corinthians 4:7-17 - Don't Lose Heart

Call to worship:

1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
    the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
    I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
    our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
    for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:1-7

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

How does Paul explain our human lives? What imagery and metaphors and why does it matter?

In difficulty, do you tend to exaggerate or shrink your circumstances? How can we “right size” our suffering?

In what ways does the truth of Jesus inform tough seasons of life?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for this advent season that reminds us of who You are and what You've done. We ask that by the power of Your Spirt, we'd be enabled to behold the beauty of your Son and apply His work to our lives. Please give us patience as we wait for His glorious return, and use us for the good of those around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

2 Cor 4:7-18

Just as wine cannot keep well in silver or gold vessels, but only in the lowliest of vessels—earthen ones—so words of Torah do not keep well in one who considers himself to be the same as silver or gold vessels, but only in one who considers himself the same as the lowliest of vessels—earthen ones. - Rabbinical Commentary on Torah

The Stoic philosopher—and still more the Cynic—prided himself on his indifference to physical and mental suffering, and would often give a recital of what he had been through in order to demonstrate the power of the philosophy to make one able to rise above such purely external and short-term vicissitudes. - David Garland

“Epictetus believed that difficulties (peristaseis) “show what men are.” What they endured exhibited their true grit and moral constancy. For Paul hardships do not disclose what humans are made of but what God’s power is like” - David Garland

“While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy. Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.” - Tim Keller

Gathering Recap - 12/22/2024 - Philippians 4:10-23 - The Good Life

Call to worship:

1 Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
    in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the Lord,
    studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
    and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
    the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
    he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
    in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
    all his precepts are trustworthy;
8 they are established forever and ever,
    to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
    he has commanded his covenant forever.
    Holy and awesome is his name!
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
    all those who practice it have a good understanding.
    His praise endures forever!

Psalm 111:1-10

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What isn’t contentment? What is contentment? Where do we find it?

Do you wrestle with wanting to know the plot line?

If we learn Jesus over a lifetime, what lessons is He teaching you these days?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for this advent season that reminds us of who You are and what You've done. We ask that by the power of Your Spirt, we'd be enabled to behold the beauty of your Son and apply His work to our lives. Please give us patience as we wait for His glorious return, and use us for the good of those around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Phillipians 4:10-23 - Jack

Title: The Good Life

“For the Stoics, self-sufficiency meant becoming independent from all external circumstances and from material goods. As Seneca expressed it, “The happy man is content with his present lot, no matter what it is, and is reconciled to his circumstances” Through discipline and inner strength, individuals could master their own universe. The Stoics’ aim was to become serenely indifferent to anything fate tossed their way.”

- Dean Fleming

“We are often more frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”

- Seneca

“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all, – the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.”

- Seneca

“The apostle does not seek detachment from life’s circumstances. Instead he has learned to see his hardships as a part of God’s great drama of salvation… Above all, 4:13 reveals that Paul’s contentment comes not from his own inner resources, but from God. Fee puts it well: “[Paul] uses the language—and outwardly assumes the stance—of Stoic ‘self-sufficiency,’ but radically transforms it into Christ-sufficiency. The net result is that Paul and Seneca, while appearing to be close, are a thousand leagues apart”

- Dean Fleming

“Our disciplines don’t address our deepest longings.”

- Ruth Chou Simons

“Christ in me, not me in a set of different circumstances”

- Elisabeth Elliot

Gathering Recap - 12/15/2024 - Philippians 4:8-9 - Thinking, Practice, Promise

Call to worship:

2 The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.

6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called[e]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

When you evaluate your thinking, what does your mind tend to wander toward?

Why do you think we expect peace, often divorced from our practice?

How can we “act the miracle” a put the promises of God into the practices of our lives?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for this advent season that reminds us of who You are and what You've done. We ask that by the power of Your Spirt, we'd be enabled to behold the beauty of your Son and apply His work to our lives. Please give us patience as we wait for His glorious return, and use us for the good of those around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Philippians 4:8-9

“Who we are and what we do it is fundamentally a function of what we remember” - Joshua Foer

The next two words are more at home in the world of Hellenism than that of the Bible. This first term appears nowhere else in the NT. Nor does it show up on any list of ancient moral virtues. Its usage embraces both what is “lovely” (i.e., “beautiful”) as well as what is “lovable” or attractive to others. Christians are to reflect on what is beautiful and pleasing, both in creation and in the spiritual lives of God’s people - Dean Flemming

“Thought leads to action, and what we open our minds to quickly becomes our master” - T. Deasley

(Rom 12:1-2)

We must model our relationships on Christ, surround our circumstances by prayer, drill our minds in godly thinking, and subject our life to the Word of God. Do this, ‘and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus … and the God of peace will be with you’. If we ignore the calling we must be prepared to forgo the blessings. - Alec Motyer

Gathering Recap - 12/08/2024 - Philippians 4:4-7 - A Politics of Peace

Call to worship:

169 Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
    give me understanding according to your word!
170 Let my plea come before you;
    deliver me according to your word.
171 My lips will pour forth praise,
    for you teach me your statutes.
172 My tongue will sing of your word,
    for all your commandments are right.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
    for I have chosen your precepts.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,
    and your law is my delight.
175 Let my soul live and praise you,
    and let your rules help me.
176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
    for I do not forget your commandments.

Psalm 119:169-176

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Why does Paul repeat himself on the command to rejoice??

What does it look like to let our gentleness be known?

How does all of chapter 4 connect to the call to not be anxious?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for this advent season that reminds us of who You are and what You've done. We ask that by the power of Your Spirt, we'd be enabled to behold the beauty of your Son and apply His work to our lives. Please give us patience as we wait for His glorious return, and use us for the good of those around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Phillipians 4:4-7 - Kim (Chris F Preaching)

Perhaps ‘graciousness’ is the best English equivalent; and, in the context here, it is to be the spirit of willingness to yield under trial which will show itself in a refusal to retaliate when attacked. It may have seemed an impossible ideal to the Philippians, but the preceding verse is a reminder that such a quality ‘is the outshining of joy in the Lord’...

-Ralph P. Martin, Tyndale New TestamentMM

Phil. 1:27-28:

Only let your manner of life (politeuomai) be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents...

Phil. 3:20:

But our citizenship (politeuma) is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...

1 Tim. 2:1-4:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Tim. 3:3:

... not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive...

"The Philippians, living in a garrison town, would be familiar with the sight of the Roman sentry, maintaining his watch. Likewise, comments the apostle, God’s peace will garrison and protect your hearts and your minds."

Ralph Martin

Psalm 8:1-2:

"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger."

Just as babies cannot appeal or persuade by means of articulate speech or rhetorical eloquence, so God’s enemies are defended against by means of those who are totally dependent on God. Their only defense is to cry out to him in trusting prayers, petitions, and protests.

"The Lord only needs an army of praise-wielding infant warriors to “silence” these enemies! Even the kings and rulers of “the earth” (2:2, 10) will be silenced by children praising him whose majestic name fills “the earth”

-Bruce Waltke

Gathering Recap - 12/01/2024 - Philippians 4:1-3 - An Application and Intervention

Call to worship:

161 Rulers persecute me without cause,
    but my heart trembles at your word.
162 I rejoice in your promise
    like one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and detest falsehood
    but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
    for your righteous laws.
165 Great peace have those who love your law,
    and nothing can make them stumble.
166 I wait for your salvation, Lord,
    and I follow your commands.
167 I obey your statutes,
    for I love them greatly.
168 I obey your precepts and your statutes,
    for all my ways are known to you.

Psalm 119:161-168

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

How can we apply theology to relationships?

When have you noticed that painful moments of your life produce fruit and joy?

How is love the ultimate sign of maturity and evidence of the gospel?

Where does the truth of Jesus need to be applied to the trenches of life?

Corporate Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for this advent season that reminds us of who You are and what You've done. We ask that by the power of Your Spirt, we'd be enabled to behold the beauty of your Son and apply His work to our lives. Please give us patience as we wait for His glorious return, and use us for the good of those around us.

In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Phil 4:1-3 - Zyler

Slides Philippians 4

Slide 1

Big Idea:

Our understanding of beautiful theological truth must be accompanied by healthy personal relationships.

An application of powerful theology (v 1)

An intervention for healthy relationships (v 2-3)

Slide 2

JPEG of Selah Suite wall coming by email

Slide 3

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20

Slide 4

“The Greek word for crown … was commonly used to denote the festive garland, worn as a sign of gladness, or the wreath awarded to the victor of the athletic contest. If the metaphor is to be applied here, it means that the Philippian Christians would be regarded as his ‘reward,’ the seal of his apostleship … at the last day, the triumph of grace would be seen in the perseverance of the saints to the inexpressible joy of their spiritual mentors.”

Ralph P. Martin

Slide 5

Two pics of Gettysburg, side by side, coming by email

Slide 6

“Paul’s willingness to call out two women when he knew the letter would be read to the whole congregation demonstrates the fact that he cared more about the unity of the church than about the church having a superficial, “everything is going to be alright” sentimental warmth. Paul’s most joyful letter expresses his willingness to do the hard work of pursuing unity rather than just papering over problems…

Paul tells them to agree in the Lord. And he urges the church to help them. He doesn’t say, “Hey everyone else, stay out of it. It’s none of your business!” He expects the church to be involved in bringing about reconciliation. Why? Because of the gospel. The church is made up of the servants of the Lord. We are servants of Jesus Christ. We should be of the same mind because we love the same God. We believe in the same Jesus. We’re indwelled by the same Spirit.

Reconciliation isn’t easy, but pursuing it says something about the power of the gospel. So let’s be Christians who are so steeped in grace that we pursue unity in the church and with other people. Let’s be willing to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of reconciliation or to get involved and help other people reconcile because we want people to see what it looks like when grace reigns supreme.”

Trevin Wax, The Gospel Coalition

Slide 7

“People know Jesus, not just by what we say, but how we live. The way we serve one another, love one another, bear with one another, rejoice with one another, weep with one another, everything we do with one another is either evidence for or against the reality of the Gospel. In the 3rd Century, Christian Theologian Tertullian recorded how the pagans surrounding the church in North Africa exclaimed, “See how these Christians Love one another!”

Love has been, and always will be, the sign of Christian maturity and evidence of the Gospel.

Andrew McClure

Slide 8

Big Idea:

Our understanding of beautiful theological truth must be accompanied by healthy personal relationships.

Gathering Recap - 11/24/2024 - Philippians 3:12-21 - Gospel Shaped Goals

Call to worship:

153 Look on my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not forget your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
    give me life according to your promise!
155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
    for they do not seek your statutes.
156 Great is your mercy, O Lord;
    give me life according to your rules.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
    but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
158 I look at the faithless with disgust,
    because they do not keep your commands.
159 Consider how I love your precepts!
    Give me life according to your steadfast love.
160 The sum of your word is truth,
    and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Psalm 119:153-160

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Do you take yourself too seriously? What tends to offend you?

How do you handle disagreement? What do you do when you’re wrong?

What can keep us from being overly inflated or deflated? What (hint who) is the ultimate prize to press toward?

Corporate Prayer:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
 and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever

Amen

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Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Phil 3:12-21

Gospel Shaped Goals

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

(Matthew 16:24-26)

“Most of our society is constantly urging us to be aware of what we are, and what we have achieved, and what we have done, and so on. But maturity in Christian living has actually as its beginning an awareness of what I’m not. Christian maturity is not exemplified by high-sounding talk, but in a life of humble, steady consistency. It is a sign of immaturity to “think of [ourselves] more highly than [we] ought.” Maturity rejects exaggerated claims. Maturity is marked instead by a sane estimate of our spiritual progress.”

—Alistair Begg

For Paul, and for us, the prize that beckons us forward “is not something—it is Someone” (Welch 1988, 109). The full knowledge of Christ—this is the prize that awaits us at the end of the race.

Unlike many popular notions of the future today, Paul did not conceive of the goal of his journey as something literal and tangible, such as simply “getting to heaven” or “walking on streets of gold” or “wearing a crown.” Nor was his hope focused on the chance to be reunited with departed loved ones, as sincere as such longings may be. For Paul, living meant Christ (1:21). Knowing Christ and becoming like him was both his present passion and his supreme goal for the future.

The goal motivates the journey. If our purpose is merely “making it to heaven,” we might be tempted to rest on our past laurels and passively coast along until we finally receive our reward. Even worse, eternity might become “nothing more than a selfish pursuit born of a fear of death or hell” (Walton 2001, 469). But when the fullness of Christ is the prize ahead, then the journey is earmarked by a deepening desire for communion with God.” — Dean Fleming

“Let us choose … men who teach us by their lives, men who teach us what we ought to do and then prove it by their practice, who show us what we should avoid, and then are never caught doing that which they have ordered us to avoid. Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.” —Seneca

Gathering Recap - 11/17/2024 - Philippians 3:1-11 - Joy, Threats, Freedom

Call to worship:

145 With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!
    I will keep your statutes.
146 I call to you; save me,
    that I may observe your testimonies.
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help;
    I hope in your words.
148 My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
    that I may meditate on your promise.
149 Hear my voice according to your steadfast love;
    O Lord, according to your justice give me life.
150 They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose;
    they are far from your law.
151 But you are near, O Lord,
    and all your commandments are true.
152 Long have I known from your testimonies
    that you have founded them forever.

Psalm 119:145-152

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

Where is unshakeable joy found? Have you lived a season where joy rose in a counterintuitive way?

What threats do you notice in the world? How about in your own heart?

Where is true freedom found? What does freedom look like for you this week?

Corporate Prayer:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
 and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Phil 3:1-11

Acts 15:1

The key passage is Genesis 17, and the important point can be simply expressed. The covenant is God’s promise. He goes on oath in certain specific matters. Abram is the recipient of the promise which is first personal: Abram becomes Abraham (verse 5), a vivid promise of regeneration or a new nature, for with the new name there is created a new man. Secondly, the promise is national, a multitude of nations (verses 5b–6). Thirdly, it is spiritual, ‘to be God to you and to your descendants after you’ (verse 7). Fourthly, it is territorial, the ‘land of your sojournings’ (verse 8); and finally, by way of emphasizing the most important point, spiritual again, ‘and I will be their God’ (verse 8). Circumcision symbolizes the application of the covenant promises to those individuals whom God has chosen to receive them. This came to be seen as the essential heart of the covenant promise and the most quoted verse in the Bible: ‘You shall be my people, and I will be your God.’ Paul, the Philippians, the whole company of Christian believers down the years—we are the chosen people of God, individually born again, individually and collectively heirs of the Lord’s purposes of grace. It is as though Paul said: We may be sure that God has set his personal seal of choice and ownership upon us, for we are the circumcision- Alec Motyer

Eph 2:11-16,

Gal 3:26-29

“I consider them rubbish is too weak a translation for the shocking word Paul uses (skybala). Found only here in the New Testament, skybala could refer to refuse, stinking and decaying food, or even human excrement. It carries the idea of something that is only fit to be thrown out because it is so disgusting. As a result, filth or the coarse colloquial term “crap” better captures the detestable quality expressed in this term. Paul could hardly have stated his revulsion toward his former sources of pride and self-righteousness more emphatically - Dean Flemming

"Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously, radically insecure persons. We must first make real to them the grace of God accepting them daily, not because of their spirituality or their achievements in Christian service, but because God has accounted to them the perfect righteousness of Christ.” Richard Lovelace

Matthew 7:24-27

Gathering Recap - 11/10/2024 - Philippians 2:10-30 - Working Out Witness

Call to worship:

137 Righteous are you, O Lord,
    and right are your rules.
138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness
    and in all faithfulness.
139 My zeal consumes me,
    because my foes forget your words.
140 Your promise is well tried,
    and your servant loves it.
141 I am small and despised,
    yet I do not forget your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is righteous forever,
    and your law is true.
143 Trouble and anguish have found me out,
    but your commandments are my delight.
144 Your testimonies are righteous forever;
    give me understanding that I may live.

Psalm 119:137-144

Gathering Video

Questions for reflection:

What is the significance of Timothy and Epaphroditus in the life of the Philippian church?

Who has played a significant role in your formation of faith?

If we’re called to share and show Jesus today, how is he leading you out toward witness and life?

Corporate Prayer:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
 and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever

Amen

If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:

Notes//Quotes//Slides:

Philippians 2:19-30

1 Cor 12:21-26

“The Christian community demonstrates the effectiveness of the gospel. We are the living proof that the gospel is not an empty word but a powerful word that takes men and women who are lovers of self and transforms them by grace through the Spirit into people who love God and others. We are the living proof that the death of Jesus was not just a vain expression of God’s love but an effective death that achieved the salvation of a people who now love one another sincerely from a pure heart” - Tim Chester

1 Peter 2:9-10

John20:21)

“The Swiss psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross once wrote,

"Beautiful people do not just happen." Do you know any of these beautiful people? People who shine with an inner luminescence, who radiate a kind of moral beauty? These kinds of people don't

"just happen" by accident; they are formed, or forged, often in the fire of suffering and pain, over a long period of time, into people of love.” - John Mark Comer

Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time with him - Zach Eswine