Midtown Church Austin

Matthew 7:13-23. Jesus invites us to follow his narrow and hard way that leads to life, and he warns us about the easy and wide way that leads to death - the way of religion and the world.

Matthew 7:12. Jesus summarizes the Sermon on the Mount with the Golden Rule. As much as we love the idea of the Golden Rule on paper, we often follow one of two unwritten rules of our own.

Matthew 7:7-11. Jesus teaches that we can pray with confidence when we ask God to help us become more like Jesus. We can pray confidently because we know it's what God wants for us, God can do it, and He's a good Father.

Jesus' command to not judge is one of our favorites to enforce in the lives of others, but when we try to live by it ourselves, we find it seemingly impossible. We will explore Jesus' position on the subject and its implications for those who want to follow him in this teaching.

Biblical hope is the joyful and confident expectation of what's to come based on something trustworthy. Jesus's resurrection is the trustworthy event that makes Christians have hope that everything will be made new.

I Corinthians 15:3-8. No one expected Jesus to rise from the men and women closest to him. Why did they document their unbelief, what caused them to change into those who proclaimed having seen Jesus risen, and what doe it mean for us today?

Philippians 2:8,9. Jesus's resurrection signaled the start of his restoration of the world, a restoration born through weakness, not power. Weakness is the way of God, the way to God, and the way we partner with God in restoring the world.

Matthew 6:33. Jesus announced the availability of the Kingdom of God to all people. In this teaching, we will unpack Jesus' gospel of the Kingdom and His expectation for those who would become His disciples.

Matthew 6:25-34. We worry because something is wrong in the world and something is wrong with our hearts. We can be free from worry when we believe that we're valuable to God and that he knows what we need and will provide.

Matthew 6:19-24. What we believe about God affects our entire lives, from the inside out. In this teaching, Jesus shows us how our vision of God influences our relationship to wealth, materiality, and the poor.

Matthew 6:16-18. We will practice fasting more regularly when we understand how our bodies affect our spirits and our spirits affect our bodies. We'll realize how fasting helps keep our minds on God when we do.

Matthew 6:5-13. Jesus teaches us how to pray and how not to pray. He promises great rewards for those who pray secretly and simply.

Matthew 6:1-4. Our Father notices us and wants to reward us for our good works, but if we do good works to look good to others, we'll miss out on God's reward.

Matthew 5:38-48. We can only break the cycle of Us vs. Them when we don't retaliate and overcome evil by doing good like praying for our enemies, serving them, and befriending them.

Matthew 5:33-37. Jesus teaches people to be those who keep their word. We keep our word because we were created to reflect God, the promise keeper, and called to love others, as God loves them.

Isaiah 58:6-11. The spiritual practice of fasting has benefits and dangers, so we need to ask what kind of fast God has chosen?

Isaiah 54:1-5. It's time to move from a survival mentality to a "thrival" mentality. We should expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

Genesis 12:1-3. Why does God bless us? He blesses us because he is good, and he's up to something good. How should we respond to his blessings? By blessing God and blessing others.

II Corinthians 9:10-12. The generosity of one church leads to thanksgiving in another church and God being glorified in His Church.

II Corinthians 8:1-5. The kingdom of God expands through the sacrificial generosity of churches and God's people.

Matthew 5:27-32. Jesus discusses how the misuse and misappropriation of sexual desire lead to the objectification and oppression of others and why this is such a big deal.

Matthew 5:21-26. Our relationship with God is inseparably tied to our relationship with people. Only through repentance and forgiveness can we live at peace with one another.

Matthew 5:17-20. Jesus believed that the scriptures were inspired, trustworthy, unchanging, and fulfilled in him. If Jesus saw the scriptures this way, they should not be neglected or unexamined by us.

Luke 10:38-42. Doing things for God apart from being with God leads to emotionally unhealthy spirituality. There are four symptoms to help diagnose if you're making this mistake.

Matthew 5:13-16. Jesus invites his followers to partner with him in extending his kingdom in the world. As salt, we preserve the world from evil and make the world a more flavorful place. As light, we provide illumination for people to see Jesus.

Matthew 5:1-12. Jesus's kingdom was an upside-down kingdom that sees people differently than the world's kingdoms, and it was a kingdom comprised of the powerless, not the powerful.

Matthew 4:12-25. Jesus's ministry on earth can be summed up in this one sentence; "The kingdom of heaven is near." The people of his day were expecting a king who would establish a new kingdom by forming a new people, confronting evil, and bringing freedom.

John 4:4-26. Jesus offers us living water so that we will never thirst again. Though we often fail to access it, Jesus provides abundant and eternal life that we can't find in the world.

John 3:1-16. Jesus explains to Nicodemus the mystery and the Spirit's work in illumining our hearts to see Jesus and the process by which the Spirit does it.

Mark 2:1-12. Our spiritual needs are greater than our physical needs. Jesus came to heal them both, but he knew that spiritual forgiveness was the starting place for spiritual and physical healing.

John 2:1-11. The human desire for joy is infinite because we were made by God and for God, and we can only be satisfied by an infinite God. Jesus came to make a way for us to experience the joy of the infinite God.

Matthew 4:12-17. Jesus came to expose our sins and call us to repentance. His patience and kindness toward us lead us to repentance to faith and ongoing repentance as we follow him.

Matthew 3:13-4:2. Jesus was unhurried, present in each moment, and interruptable for his Father and people. He lived this way because he is love, and love is patient.

Matthew 11:28-30. Only once did Jesus describe his heart, and he said he is gentle and humble in heart. His gentle and humble heart is what made him draw near to the lowly and offer them rest, the rest that he experienced through his pace and practices.

John 1:35-50. Jesus knows us and calls us by name. He knows our backstory, our current circumstances, and our future.

Matthew 4:18-25. Jesus invited his disciples to not only watch his life and ministry but to join him in it. He trained them to do what he did.

Luke 6:39-40. Jesus invites his followers to become like him, and it's something that we really can do. We can become like him. To become like Jesus, we need to be aware of the unintentional ways the world is influencing us and give ourselves to the practices of Jesus that keep us rooted in him.

John 15:1-8. To become like Jesus, we first must be with him and remain in him. To be with Jesus, we must adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.

Mark 8:34-37. When Jesus called his disciples to follow him, it was a call to be with him, to become like him, and to do what he did. His call is the same for us today. When we become more like Jesus, Austin will become a lot more like heaven.

Colossians 3:15-17. We worship God so we can experience God personally and so we can experience God together. When the church gathers for worship, there is a vertical element unto God and a horizontal element unto each other.

Romans 12:1-2 and Luke 7:36-50. Adoration of God begins with a revelation of our need for mercy. We experience the mercy of God to the degree we believe that we need it.

Psalm 147. We worship because God is worthy, and it's fitting to honor the one who created the entire world yet loves and cares for us.

Psalm 67. God calls all of us to live heroic lives. He calls us out of our ordinary lives into a life of adventure requiring selflessness and sacrifice.

Proverbs 18:21. Our words have power. They can bring life or death. The wise learn how to use their words to bring life.

Proverbs 5 and 7. A loving father helps his son by showing him what is promised in sexual temptation, what it costs to compromise, and what to do to resist temptation.

Proverbs 13:20. Our emotions cloud our decision-making, which is why we need wise friends to make wise decisions. We need to have wise friends, and we need to listen to their advice.

Proverbs 6:6-11. Wise people invest their time, while fools waste their time. Small amounts of time invested accumulate, creating positive results. Small amounts of time wasted accumulate, creating negative results.

Proverbs 30:7-9. Wealth seduces our hearts with its deceptions. It overpromises and under-delivers. That's why Jesus told us not to be foolish by hoarding wealth for ourselves but instead to be rich toward God.

Proverbs 3:1-8. Wisdom is found in God alone, but what's the way to find God's wisdom? The way to wisdom is knowing God's faithful love for you, trusting in the God who loves you, and seeking wisdom from others who trust God.

Ephesians 5:15-17 and Proverbs 1:7. There's one question we can ask ourselves that allows us to grow in wisdom. The question is: "In light of my past experience, current circumstances, and desired future, what is the wise thing for me to do?