Connection Church Sioux Falls

God is revealing Himself and bringing glory to His name by saving the nations through the good news of His Son, Jesus Christ.

God speaks to the soul of a human being, not according to human wisdom, but by the radically Good News of Jesus.

In Jesus Christ, God enters into simple, humble, and unremarkable circumstances to demonstrate that He desires to bring glory to His name by saving and redeeming His people - no matter their helpless state.

God is glorifying himself by saving and redeeming people through Jesus Christ, so we celebrate by faith what is coming to pass - a deeper reality than ourselves - with profound joy.

God is at work by the power of His Spirit to demonstrate to the world that Jesus is the Lord and King that will fulfill the desires and dreams of every human being at His final return.

The Good News to which we cling is that Jesus has died, been buried, and has been raised on our behalf; so baptism is an open declaration to the world – a picture of the Good News.

To be saved THROUGH God's mission is to be saved TO God's mission.

The consequences of human sinfulness are visible in suffering and death, but God has the power to take even the consequences of sin and use them as the means for the salvation of His people and the glory of His Name.

If the people of God are going to faithfully display the charater of God to the world, then they are to do so by having their identity rooted in the mercy only He can give, not by their own effort.

God's faithfulness can be seen as He brings consequences for sin in order that His people might return to Him.

Even though punishment for sin loomed over the heads of God’s people, Hosea demonstrates a sign that God would still love them and hold them to Himself and His ways; and in spite of their unfaithfulness, one day He would restore them to a new kingdom with a new, good king.

While the consequences of the sin of idolatry are numerous and visible, these consequences are evidence of God’s love for us and His desire for our greater joy, which can only be found in Him.

God reveals and relates Himself to us through a covenant - the strongest possible bond conceivable.

God reveals His character most clearly amidst the brokenness of a fallen, sinful world; and He asks His people to demonstrate His character and the brokenness of the world by remarkable, costly means.

When God speaks, light and life come into being — whether in all of creation or through the Bible — but most especially, sufficiently, and clearly through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The person and work of Jesus is the Good News that God’s Kingdom has now come — Good News that the Church now announces and demonstrates to the world.

God has placed us where we are to represent Jesus Christ so that the world will be blessed even when calamity befalls us; so let us be confident in His promise to save us and ready to do every good work wherever the waves of events may take us.

As Paul departs toward Rome, we are reminded that human beings are in a desperate situation in need of God’s help and we are called to believe His word and rely on His power for deliverance. The story demonstrates the opportunity that the follower of Jesus Christ has in such a situation to (1) draw attention to the character of God and (2) to encourage unbelievers to turn to him for mercy.

According to Jesus’ own plan, His followers will experience circumstances of protection and persecution for His name’s sake; and each and every instance is actually an opportunity to bear witness to the hope we now have in Him.

It is not uncommon for followers of Jesus to have false accusations made against them on account of Jesus Christ and even to be misrepresented in the courts as harmful to society, yet God is able to make the things of this world serve His own purpose.

God has provided the opportunity as well as the clear conscience for Christians to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ; Jesus will comfort us and encourage us for the task, and the Holy Spirit will sovereignly control the circumstances to complete the mission of delivering this testimony.

Every follower of Christ has an eternally significant story to tell and a deep sympathy for their unbelieving hearers. Their story tells of the glory of Jesus, the weight of their sin, their experience of familial love, their water baptism, and their bold witness to those who might believe.

As Paul returns to Jerusalem, he demonstrates to the early churches and to us that confidence in Christ and His kingdom gives a deep sense of purpose, conviction, will pay any price, and inspires others.

Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd has purchased His flock for Himself with His own blood so that we now have a right perspective toward God, toward His Church, toward the Lost, and toward Ourselves.

Luke gives us in the Book of Acts a fast-paced account of the Gospel spreading throughout the known world. From time to time we see in greater detail how this movement creates a people marked by exhortation, generosity, perseverence, hospitality, and even new life. We also see the origins of some of the practices of the early and present-day church.

As the Good News of who Jesus is and what He has done is shared, Effectiveness and Persecution usually go hand in hand; since an effective church is a bold church loyal to Jesus above all, and a bold church is often a church made strong through suffering.

The proclamation and belief in the Gospel has always travelled alongside powerful and miraculous spiritual signs, and it always exposes that which is false in order that the life-giving Word of the Lord might multiply and the name of Jesus might be held in highest regard.

Now that we are in Christ, we not only believe differently, we also behave differently. This often means letting go of old ways of thinking and acting that have no ability to give life and growing in our understanding of the Gospel such that the Good News of Jesus is carried on by His people.

Since God has many people to be won by the Gospel in the city, we will not be prevented by hostile action from continuing our missionary work until God’s purpose is complete.

God is knowable, and He desires that every person on earth should know Him; so we now join His Mission to declare this unchanging Good News into an ever-changing culture.

God has sent messengers to proclaim the light of His truth to a lost, sin-darkened world; and this message is met with different responses - from anger, to curiosity, to life-transforming joy.

God’s sovereign rule brings good results out of bad circumstances, especially when His people experience persecution. As a result, they are able to praise Him in any and all circumstances, because He saves, protects, and preserves.

The Spirit of God directs the movement of the Gospel in such a way that lives are changed and people are liberated to new life in Christ.

The nature of the Gospel is that we do not do things to earn God’s favor. Yet the nature of the Gospel is that since God has given us his unmerited favor in Jesus Christ, we take steps to seek to win the favor of others for the sake of the multiplication of the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul asked to take this young man named Timothy along with him directly into harm's way for the sake of the multiplication of the Gospel, and his mother, passing on her rich heritage of sincere faith, actually let him go!

It is our desire to let the Gospel be our central focus so that our inclination is toward going and sending, our approach is to make disciples, and our personnel love the Mission more than getting their own way. The result will be Gospel-Centered Multiplication.

What Jesus began to do and to teach is continued by the Holy Spirit in the Church. The work of the Holy Spirit in both the Church and in the world is unstoppable. He has an unwavering zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ. Everything He does is measured by Jesus and glorifies Jesus.

Sometimes we do not get the thing that we hoped for, because are hopes are simply too high; but other times we do not get the thing we hoped for, because are hopes are too low. To place our hopes in Jesus is to never have your hopes too high.

Jesus is alive! The response to this great truth takes two forms: One in which keeping it a secret seems more profitable, and one in which Jesus commands us to take that truth to the whole world.

To consider the possibility that death did not have power over Jesus will change the way we feel, think, and live. Forever.

Jesus comes to His people as a kind, gentle, humble king who uses lowly, ordinary means and people - with their selfish, superficial, fake, fickle tendencies - to bring himself glory by saving them in spite of themselves.

Jesus has transformed the identity of His people, and this changes how communicate with God, what they communicate to the world, the way they communicate by their actions, and the tone in which they communicate with everyone.

Now that we have been united with Christ, we not only put off that which is sinful; but we also put on that which is consistent with our new position. This must take place especially in our closest relationships.

It's Jesus' job to put sin to death completely, but we are invited to put off sinfulness by always digging deeper into it and applying the Gospel at the deepest level. Then, we dress accordingly.

The great joy of the Gospel is found in that which Jesus - our Lord and King who is seated at the right hand of God - has accomplished for us and is realizing in our newly transformed lives.

To define ourselves by what we've done more so than by what Christ has done for us is to miss the Good News of Jesus Christ.

God shapes His people by His Word. As we begin spending the next 8 weeks walking through Paul's letter (Epistle) to the Colossians together, it is good to think about why we would read a letter to someone else written almost 2,000 years ago.

Very early on in the Gospel of Matthew we are introduced to the powerful, life-changing themes of repentance, God's kingdom, baptism, confession of sin, and God's pleasure in us in Jesus Christ.

While we celebrate Christmas by welcoming Jesus, the Gospel's tell us that Jesus was, in fact, made to be unwelcome after his arrival. There was no room for him in the inn, and Herod wanted him dead; and yet God's Will to redeem His people through Jesus is not thwarted.

What we are willing to bring to Jesus reveals what we believe about Jesus. The story of the Wise Men and the gifts they bring to Jesus teaches us amazing truth about Jesus and what made these men so "wise."