Back Creek Church | Charlotte, NC

God's grace precedes righteousness, it provides relationship, and it produces faith and obedience.

Sometimes when we're reading the Scriptures, we come across things that fall into the theological category of "weird," and we find some of that in Genesis 6. We also find something that's not weird at all - man's big problem of sin and God's big solution to it (grace).

There are two ways to live: we can live like Cain and his line, fleeing from God's presence and going our own way or we can live like Seth and his line, turning toward God in faith.

God demonstrates His grace even in the worst of our messes.

Though we are runners and rebels, the God who was and is and is to come is good and He loves us. He will not change his mind. God is tenaciously committed to us, regardless of how we treat Him, and will never stop demonstrating His goodness to us. In the midst of our rebellion, God pursues us. (3:8-13)In the midst of our rebellion, God provides for us. (3:16-24)In the midst of our rebellion, God promises to redeem us (3:14-15)

If God is good and he created a good world for good people made in his image... what went wrong? How do we make sense of the disconnect between our longings and our experience?In a word, sin. Sin is rebellion against God - an attack against the Creator by his creation. And the way sin works never changes. Sin attacks God by:Denying God's Goodness (Genesis 3:1-5)- Denying God's Command (vs. 1, "Did God actually say...")- Denying God's Credibility (vs. 4, "You will not surely die...")- Denying God's Character (vs. 5, "He knows you will... be like God...")Deceiving God's People (Genesis 3:6)Distorting God's Gifts (Genesis 3:7-24)

The good Creator of all things loves us, and we see that in the good gifts he gave us at creation...

Human beings have always had big questions on their hearts: how did we get here? Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? Why do we all feel that the only world we've ever known isn't the way it should be? Why do we long for a different world that we've never experienced? Since very early times, right up until today, human beings have tried to construct a narrative, a story that attempts to answer these questions and make sense of the universe, our lives, and our longings as they are. God's Word (the Bible) tells us the one story that makes sense of everything: it's the story of a good God who made a good world for his good people.

How can we be a part of God's work in and through Back Creek Church?

Jesus is the Word of God who breaks the silence forever.Jesus is the Light of God whom the darkness has not, cannot, will not overcome.Jesus is the love of God who brings home alienated prodigals, giving us the right to become children of God.Jesus is the grace of God who removes our earned condemnation.Jesus is the truth of God who frees us from the lies of the world and the enemy.And though the wages of sin is death, they will not have the last word, because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin!

Some of the most beautiful words in the history of the universe are "And it came to pass." "And it came to pass" means that God has acted in history to give all his promises their "yes and amen." It means that every inspired word spoken by his prophets, every act of deliverance, every picture and shadow, every promise and longing of his people were pointing forward to this one event: the birth of Christ. And it came to pass.

God's final answer to his people's cry, "Deliver us!" was a baby boy in Bethlehem who is God's presence with his people (Isaiah 7:14), God's king over his people (Isaiah 9:1-7), God's prophet to his people (Isaiah 11:1-5), and God's priest for his people (Isaiah 53). "Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and lamb are feeding?Good Christian, fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleadingNails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be born for me, for youHail, hail, the Word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary."

Lord, let your judgment pass over usLord, let your love hover nearDon't let your sweet mercy pass over usLet this blood cover over us here - Andrew Peterson, "Passover Us," Behold the Lamb of God

Gather 'round, ye children, come, listen to the old, old story of the power of death undone.

We do not love our neighbors as ourselves until we want for them what we have in Christ to the degree that we are compelled to connect them with the hope of the Gospel.

We love our neighbors with holiness when we show them who God is by telling a better story with our lives than the story the world is telling.We love our neighbors with humility when we realize the better story is not about us. Self-focus will make us haughty. Christ-focus will make us humble.

Loving God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds doesn't remain in our inner person - it flows into our lives transforming our priorities, our schedules, our words, our actions. Love for neighbor also can't stay within use, but must flow into our lives transforming the way think about and treat our homes, our families, and our resources. Love for God and neighbor lead us to hospitality.

The second great commandment is grounded in and flows from the first: we can love our neighbors only when we supremely love God, but we can only love God fully if we love our neighbors.

Jesus commands us to love the Lord our God with all of our minds. We do this by thinking about God (connecting creation, our daily experiences, and blessings) and thinking God's thoughts after him (by reading, memorizing, and applying his Word).

To love the Lord our God with all our souls, we must honor God with the reverence of our lives (not misusing his name in word or deed) and with the rhythm of our lives (remembering the Lord's Day to keep it holy).

Loving the Lord your God with all your heart means cultivating a deep devotion and commitment to God at the very center of who we are. It means fighting to put God first in all things and refusing to remake him in our own image.

Why is loving the Lord our God the greatest commandment - the greatest thing a human being can do? Because God is the greatest and highest Good: our Creator and our Redeemer.

We are called to wide reach as we love and witness to our neighbors and the nations.Our core values that drive our mission:Real Hope - the struggle is real, but there is hope. Deep Connection - the Gospel creates an uncommon community.Full Engagement - Back Creek Church is us, but it isn't about us.Wide Reach - we love our neighbors and we love the nations.

In the church, no one is extra - everyone is essential. We need everyone to be fully engaged in the worship, life, and mission of our church. Back Creek Church is us, but it isn't about us.

Pastor Matt Mantooth shares from Genesis 2, Mark 2 , and Isaiah 58 about the rest God calls us into and learning to delight in it.

Rev. Darin Stone from Ministry to State shares from Leviticus 19 about loving our neighbors as ourselves.

The Gospel creates an uncommon community that cultivates deep connection through perceiving the connection that already exists, practicing the connection we long for, and publishing our connection to the world.

The Real Hope of the Gospel brings new life to a person, characterized by a new king of endurance, a new kind of love, a new kind of faith, and a new kind of joy.

Our mission is our destination - where we believe God is calling us to go as a church. Our core values drive us toward that destination: real hope, deep connection, full engagement, wide reach. When the risen Christ ascended to heaven, he did not leave us with a great CLUB to enjoy with likeminded people, a great COMFORT to magnify our own consumerism and preferences, a great CROWD that gathers for a production every weekend, or a great COALITION by which we might use political power to enforce change on the world. He left us with a Great COMMISSION: Be disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus. This is the mission of the Church and our church.

Wisdom requires us to do justice. Tim Keller defines biblical justice as "giving people their due." That involves a proportional response to evil, but also includes extending to people their rights. As bearers of God's image, all human beings have a right to dignity, protection, provision, and love. It is particularly required of the Church that we care for the vulnerable - the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the immigrant.

Wisdom requires us to walk in integrity, with Jesus as our "true north."

Wisdom requires us to find contentment outside our circumstances, by identifying the sources of our discontentment (expectations and envy) and by knowing the source of true contentment (fear of and trust in the Lord). Proverbs 13:25, 14:30, 19:23, 3:5-8

Wisdom requires us to embrace the abundant life that God provides. How? Through relationship with God, following Jesus down the path of righteousness, and sharing the abundant life with others. It all comes down to one thing, really: get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.

Wisdom requires that we choose our friends carefully, commit to our friends fully, and care for our friends practically.

Wisdom requires a new relationship with money. Principles that help establish this new relationship: 1) all the money is the Lord's 2) the Lord ordinarily provides through honest, hard work 3) generosity is a blessing, to us and through us 4) the Lord is the real treasure

Wisdom requires family. Wisdom pursues a biblical family, embraces a broken family, and receives a better family.

Wisdom requires that we steward our emotions well, by recognizing our emotions are real but refusing to let our emotions rule. Emotions can be a great navigator but they are almost always a terrible driver. F - feel your feelings (it is not healthy to ignore or suppress them) E - engage your feelings (question them - what? why? how? who?) E - express your feelings appropriately (to the Lord, to yourself, to others) L - listen to the Word and the Spirit (emotions can show you where you are and how you got there, but let the Lord drive your life, by listening to his Word and the Holy Spirit) S - submit your feelings to Christ (we tend to live in our own private emotional world, but if Jesus is Lord of our lives, he is Lord of our emotions as well - we need to invite and submit)

In God's Kingdom, the way up is down. Pride brings humiliation and harm; humility brings honor and happiness. Wisdom requires that we kill pride and cultivate humility.

The Lord's Supper is a means of grace to us as a meal, memorial, and message, and it has meaningful effects for our lives.

Baptism signifies, seals, and shows the identity we have been given in Christ. It is a means of grace to grow us in faith - not merely at the moment of baptism, but all our lives long.

God speaks and we listen through His Word. We speak and God listens when we pray.

The Holy Spirit saves sinners and sanctifies saints (applying to them the work of Christ) by the Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.

We finish the Mark's Gospel with this passage that may not have been part of the original, inspired text by leaning on parallel accounts and information in the other Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. We see that Jesus' mission was decisively victorious in his resurrection, but that his mission continues.

Whatever you think you're seeking, and however you've been seeking it, what you really seek is a crucified and risen Christ.

In His suffering, humiliation, and death on the cross, Jesus takes away our shame and our sin.

This chapter in Mark's Gospel shows us at least four ways people respond to Jesus...

Jesus answers his disciples' questions about the destruction of the temple and the apocalypse.

Jesus demonstrates superior wisdom in history, politics, theology, philosophy, and economics.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem with the authority of a king, priest, and prophet.

What kind of Kingdom does Jesus bring?