Trey VanCamp Teachings Podcast

James 1 confronts us with a painful reality: life will be hard. We’ll be persecuted, gut-punched, and exposed as we continue practicing the way of Jesus in our everyday lives. But James 1 also gives us a vision for the kind of people we can be if we endure these hardships with humility and patience. The church is at its best when we’re people who speak graciously, serve selflessly, and live holy. To become this type of church, James invites us to examine how we react when people offend us, and when the Bible confronts us. When in conflict with others we often react with anger, and when exposed by the Bible we often react with apathy. But to learn to submit ourselves to God in both of these situations will allow us to mature into the kind of church God has called us to be.

When most of us think of simplicity, we think of digital minimalism, materialism, and wealth. But few of us would consider the practice of simplicity as something that involves our speech and relationships. And yet, when we examine how often we use sarcasm, exaggeration, and flattery to manipulate people and get what we want, we might be surprised to see that our speech is not simple or wholesome by default. Jesus himself says that our speech is an automatic result of what’s already in our hearts, and the apostle James warns us that our speech has the ability to stain our whole bodies. Left to our own, we can find ourselves trying to manipulate others, gain status and approval, or win arguments. To fight against these impulses we practice simplicity of speech; we speak honor in place of flattery and contempt, secrecy in place of gossip and exaggeration, and silence in the place of rage and manipulation.

As Americans our identities are often shaped by the quantity and quality of the stuff we own. Security, stability, and satisfaction are only possible when we buy and accumulate more wealth. And while we’re really after deep contentment, we falsely believe that the very joy we’re searching for is still on the other side of the next purchase. Cue our endless cycle of buying more so we can desire less. But Jesus offers us a better way. He does this by confronting our attachment to our stuff and our lack of trust in him, and also by modelling a life of simplicity. When we study the Scriptures, we find a deeper truth than the lie we’re trained to believe — real contentment is actually found by limiting what we own and increasing what we give.

We live in the age of the attention economy. From social media ads and online shopping to streaming and news, our hearts and minds are often cluttered and rewired for discontentment. We live chasing accumulation, or what Jesus calls “the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things.” And for most of us, this discontentment comes directly from our digital consumption. But the way of Jesus is an invitation to simplicity — learning to be content with less, not more. To start this practice, we must first train ourselves to curate our digital consumption. By limiting our digital intake, we can rewire our brains towards contentment and train ourselves to be more present and attentive to God and to those around us. For resources on simplicity, go to: https://formedbyjesus.com/simplicity/ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Formation is happening whether you like it or not. 2:20 - Mark 4v1-20 7:48 - Nothing crowds our time and attention like the digital world. 19:05 - The Practice of Simplicity 20:53 - Our definition of simplicity 22:35 - Jesus practicing solitude 28:18 - The way OUT of the digital chokehold 36:32 - Don’t fear the desert.

Let the timer begin. Revelation 1, we looked at, at the beginning of summer, we talked about how there's, just based off that one chapter, there's three ways to interpret the rest of the letter. We learned that St. John is a theologian. What that means is when you read the book of Revelation, it's more important to read it Christologically, meaning where's Christ in this passage, than it is reading it Chronologically, we think the biggest mistakes people make is thinking this was all written in a right order. And now that Revelation 15 just happened last week, now we're ready for 16. It doesn't happen that way. It's all over the map. It's just by which John saw the next vision. It doesn't mean that's when it happened. Another thing we learned is he's a pastor to the seven churches, which means he has a pastoral heart. And so when we read all of Revelation, the focus needs to be on discipleship, not on decipherment. It's not like the National Treasure, where we gotta take a candle, pour some lemon juice on it, and see the secret hidden meaning, and see what happens with the Twin Towers in 2001. None of that. This is, there is a plain message we can read if we're willing to wrestle with the text, and it's to change us. Lastly, we learn in Revelation 1 that John is a poet. Meaning, we read Revelation literarily, not literally. Meaning it's not like a newspaper. It's more like a political cartoon where you see something like a beast. It's not an actual beast. It's communicating something even bigger and much larger, really. That's Revelation 1. That was in a minute and a half. We're in trouble. Revelation 2 and 3, he shows us there's these seven letters to these seven churches, and Jesus has this three point sermon. He affirms each church for what they're doing well. He rebukes them for where they're not, and he motivates them to keep pressing on. We knew. We learned. Those seven letters in chapters two and three are written to the first century church, but hear me, they are for every single century, every church, and we're going to be diving into that in the month of September. When you boil it down, Jesus affirms the type of church who are people of love, who avoid heresy, and endure hardship. How am I doing on time? Okay, I don't know. Revelation 4 through 5, there is now this image of a scroll and the scroll is being passed around and everybody's saying, Who can open the scroll? And everybody's sad because they're saying no one can open it. This scroll is the purpose of your life, but also the meaning of all of history. It's the answer. The answer everyone is looking for. Different philosophies, different religions, and it's bound in this scroll. And there is this moment of like, Oh, no, no one knows the answer. And then there's this lion who was a lamb who comes in and says, Oh, brother, I can open the scroll. I'm the one with meaning. I'm the one with purpose. Come to me. Your life actually does make sense. There is hope. There is a future for you. And so we learned on that day, man, we have hope because of the lamb who was slaughtered because of us, who was slaughtered instead of us. And who was slaughtered for us if any of these things interest you Go to pastor creek church teaching revelation because i'm not going to explain anymore revelation 6 to 18 one week. We talked about judgment We learned, actually you'll see all throughout Revelations a lot about judgment, but that is a good thing. There is evil going on in this world. There is injustice. We want something to be done about that, or else he wouldn't be a good God. And so these, these judgments are seen in three different sets of images. Seven seals, seven trumpets, and then seven bowls. We look together specifically at the seals. And we learn that because God is a God of, who is slow to anger and full of compassion, these judgments, hear me, Are purgative they're meant to be purgative meaning they're meant to purge us They're meant to wake us up and go we don't know how to live life without christ We need to run to him or this punishment comes our way So it's meant to be purgative, but eventually it becomes punitive Eventually, it means if you don't come to jesus, you will suffer the punishment of these judgments. And then we talked about the four horsemen, which are the white horse leading to deception. We see deception in our era today all over the place. The red horse, which is all about violence. Do we not see violence all over the globe? The black horse, which equals famine. We see that everywhere still. And then the pale green horse is sickness leading to death. We have certainly seen that even within the last few years at a cranked up rate. And we ended that kind of... Passage saying, look, the horsemen ramp up when the church stands up, but we're going to have victory. So we have to keep standing up against these horsemen. Revelation 12 through 13. We then introduce the unholy trinity. The unholy trinity is the dragon who is the devil.

In the 20th century, two books were written to predict our future: "A Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley in 1931 and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell in 1949. Both books had different ideas about how our future could be grim. Neil Postman compared these books in his work "Amusing Ourselves to Death," where he said Orwell feared the truth would be hidden and people would be controlled by pain, while Huxley feared the truth would be lost in irrelevance and people would be controlled by pleasure. In the book of Revelation, some people read it like "Nineteen Eighty-Four," seeing evil events happening through force and obvious tactics. Others read it like "A Brave New World," where evil systems and powers subtly deceive and seduce us away from Jesus. Revelation 17 talks about a Prostitute, representing a seductive force in the world. Babylon in the Bible is like a city without God, and it symbolizes any place that goes against God. The Prostitute in Revelation seduces people by making sin seem normal and by rewarding strategies that go against what Jesus taught. But we can choose not to be a part of Babylon's ways by turning towards Jesus and living a different way. We can be citizens of heaven, not of Babylon.

People often get excited about predicting the future or trying to figure out when the world will end, but Revelation is more about understanding what is happening in our present time. The dragon in the story wants to harm people, and he uses two other creatures to carry out his plans. One of them uses the power of the government to intimidate and control people. This can be seen in history when leaders have used their authority to manipulate and oppress others. The other creature uses deception and propaganda to trick people into believing false information or ideas. It’s like when advertisements or media twist the truth to persuade us in certain ways. The message Revelation 12-13 is that we need to be discerning and wise in our understanding of the world around us. We shouldn’t be easily swayed by false ideas or manipulated by those in power. Instead, we should seek truth, be critical thinkers, and strive to live according to what is right and good. So, rather than getting caught up in trying to predict the future or obsessing over sensationalized interpretations, we should focus on understanding the present, recognizing the forces that seek to harm and manipulate, and staying grounded in truth and wisdom.

The book of Revelation talks about judgments and the suffering of people. It reminds us not to feel superior and gives hope to persecuted Christians. The judgments are meant to soften our hearts and lead us to salvation. They come in groups of seven, like seals, trumpets, and bowls. The book also tells us about the four horsemen representing deception, tribalism, injustice, and sickness. But in the end, God will make things right and there will be no more suffering.

Revelation is a book that shows us a different way of understanding the world. It tells us that things are not always what they seem. Jesus, who is both powerful like a lion and sacrificial like a lamb, is the one who can save the world. By focusing on Jesus and His sacrificial love, we can find hope, purpose, and power in our lives.

In chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, John writes letters to seven different churches. He affirms them for what they are doing right and corrects them for what they are doing wrong. It’s like a teacher giving feedback to help them become all they were designed to be. For example, the church in Ephesus is commended for avoiding false teachings and enduring hardships, but they are told they have forgotten to love God and others. The church in Pergamum is praised for being courageous, but they are criticized for tolerating wrong behavior. And so on for the other churches. The main point for us today is that Jesus wants us to be a people of love who avoid false teachings and endure hardships. We need to love God and others, and not be swayed by wrong beliefs. It can be tough, but Jesus promises us a reward if we stay faithful.

No other book has been twisted or tamed more than Revelation. It’s important to remember that: As a theologian, St. John intends for us to read Revelation Christologically, not chronologically. As a pastor, St. John intends for us to read Revelation with a focus on discipleship, not on decipherment. As a poet, St. John intends for us to read Revelation literarily, not literally. We believe studying Revelation will awaken and deepen our discipleship and refocus our attention on Jesus.

At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ends with a warning: our obedience to his Word is what makes us true disciples. While most of us would agree with this idea, few of us live it out. We’re either too afraid of becoming legalists, too obsessed with information alone, or too unwilling to humble ourselves and live out what we read. In each of these cases, we fall short of the blessing of being formed into a person of love. But the cross frees us from falling short. By accepting this gift of grace from God, we have freedom from earning God’s love. And by embracing this freedom we’re able to truly live out God’s commands and experience the transformative power of His word.

All of us tend to twist the Bible to mean something it doesn’t or tame the Bible to make its teachings more palatable for us. But both ways of handling Scripture lead to our destruction and deformation. Instead, throughout the Scriptures, one of the most common metaphors for engaging with God’s word is eating it. We eat the text when we meditate on it, study it, and submit ourselves to it. We chew on passages, mulling their truths over and over in our minds and rethinking how we’re living our lives in light of what the Bible commands. And while this way of meditating on the Bible confronts and challenges us, it’s also the way we allow Scripture to form us into better followers of Jesus. Psalm 1; Joshua 1:7-8; Revelation 10:9-10

We’re bombarded with messages from political pundits, popular culture, social media ads, and news stories, all urging us to be true to ourselves, vilify those who are different, and pursue our own happiness no matter what the cost. These lies offer happiness but instead bring us slavery, just like how Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Satan still uses lies to lead us astray from God today. To follow Jesus in today’s world, we must seek and live by the truth. Reading Scripture helps us understand what’s true about the world, God, and ourselves. However, just reading the Bible isn’t enough. We must also let it shape us by setting aside our assumptions, presuppositions, and personal experiences to submit to its authority. Matthew 5:17-20

John 15:1-11 CSB

Where we once found hope and meaning outside of ourselves in the church, the city, or the market, today we’re left to create our own hope and meaning from within ourselves. We follow our hearts and feelings, no matter the cost to ourselves and those around us. But where society says choice is now the highest value, tolerance the highest virtue, and denying yourself is the new unforgivable sin, how should Christians respond? What hope does Jesus offer? In John 14, Jesus makes another countercultural claim about himself: that he alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Each of these statements is a direct counter to the values and virtues of today. Only in Jesus do we have access to God. Only in Jesus do we experience true reality. And only in Jesus can we have life and life to the full. To respond to the way of the world and live in a way congruent with these claims of Jesus, we practice self-denial.

John 11 is a story of resurrection. But it isn’t Jesus’ resurrection. Just before he’s handed over to the Roman authorities to be crucified, Jesus brings his friend Lazarus back to life from the grave. In doing so, he demonstrates both his power over death, and his sympathy in the midst of it. This story reminds us of the authority Jesus has over the grave, but it also reminds us of the severity of our sin. Death is the result of our rebellion against God and his Kingdom. Yet despite our guilt, God still heals us. The resurrection of Lazarus points forward to the resurrection of Jesus, and also to our resurrection. The message of Easter is that like Lazarus, we are dead in our sin and broken from the source of life. But also like Lazarus, Jesus forgives us and promises to one day resurrect us too. John 11 CSB

For the modern mind, the Sabbath is typically associated with a day off work to attend church, get things done around the house, and binge on the latest TV show. While this may offer the illusion of rest, it is far from a holy day set apart for the Lord. The Bible presents a different view of the Sabbath, which involves focusing our minds, hearts, and bodies on the adoration of God. It includes thinking of God throughout the day, turning our attention from worldly things to God, and loving and serving others. Without worship, the Sabbath can become a day of self-centeredness rather than a day to honor God. Rather than simply resting, worship transforms the Sabbath from a day off work to a day centered on God’s character and nature. Genesis 2:1-3; Isaiah 58 Together Guide at https://formedbyjesus.com/sabbath/worship/

A key element of Sabbath is the practice of delight. When we take the time to stop and to rest, we find ourselves more aware of the goodness and beauty in the world around us. This recognition and enjoyment of creation is called delight, and it’s something that God himself does. Scripture is full of God delighting in his creation, including us. God delights when we delight. But most of us are too unaccustomed to delight. Simply put, we don’t know how to play. We know how to indulge, how to escape, and how to numb, but few of us have cultivated the Godly qualities of playfulness and joy in our lives. God institutes Sabbath not as a day of restriction and rigidity, but as a day of delight so we become people defined by our joy. When we use Sabbath to practice delighting in God, in others, in creation, and in ourselves, we allow the Spirit to form us into people of delight. Genesis 1:31-2:3; Mark 2:23-3:6

The idea of rest seems simple enough. We all want rest, but never seem to get it. Always just outside of our reach, rest seems either something to laugh at, or something to buy. But one of the most radical things Jesus teaches us is that he is able to offer us true rest without requiring us to work more, do more, or have more. When we practice Sabbath, we stop all our work and worry so that we’re able to become people of true rest. Like Israel, we remember that we’ve been saved from the oppressive yolk of productivity, and instead we’ve taken on Jesus’ yolk of ease. We reject that lie that our worth and value come from what we do, and that rest is a commodity we have to earn. In this way, rest is a countercultural rebellion against the powers and systems at war against God and his kingdom. To practice Sabbath is to accept the invitation to rest while living in a world of hurry.

In our culture of restlessness, busyness, and hurry, setting aside an entire day to stop all work and productivity sounds anything but restful. Yet deep inside all of us is a yearning for true rest, which is why God offers rest as a gift in the form of the weekly Sabbath. In Genesis 2 God himself takes a day to rest from his work, weaving a rhythm of rest into the fabric of creation. When we live by this rhythm, working during the week and resting for a full day, we’re slowly transformed into people of true rest who are able to genuinely love others. But living outside of this rhythm wreaks havoc on our souls and relationships with others. To realign ourselves with this ancient rhythm, the first step is simply to stop. For 24 hours we commit to ceasing our work and turning our trust from our own hands to God’s provision.

In Exodus 14, Moses finally leads the people of Israel out of slavery and into freedom. But before they can enter the promised land, God tests them. He puts them between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, he leads them to undrinkable water, and then he makes them wander long enough to run out of food. Each time, the Israelites complain. They would rather remain in slavery with stability than have their freedom without control. In many ways, the story of Israel is the story of the Christian life. Like Israel’s struggle to detach themselves from Egypt, we struggle to detach ourselves from our sin. To confront us with this reality, God tests us. But from the life of Moses, we learn that the best way to endure seasons of testing and turn our attention away from our old life of sin, is to practice praise.

this time Lisa Thompson is going to be reading our scripture today. All right. Thanks Jordan. Hi again. I'm Lisa and I'll be reading the scripture, which comes from Exodus chapter five verses one in two. Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, let my people go so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness. But Farrow responded, who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don't know the Lord. And besides, I will not let Israel go. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we just ask that we would be good hearers of your word today, A passage that isn't really culturally something that we would just easy to accept, but may not only we be hears, but God may we be even better doers. Empowered by your spirit, empowered by your grace, gladly welcoming the truth. God, we love you. We thank you for what you're doing in our lives, and we thank you that you take us for where we're at and we just submit to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Perhaps the greatest boast of our generation is our ability to redefine reality. The creation of machines in the past century has redefined our relationship to work. It has saved us from sore backs, sweaty brows, and delayed timelines. Not only that, more and more, if you watch YouTube these days, artificial intelligence is taking everything by storm. It is redefined, sadly, how we even study. At the click of a button, it can literally write an essay for you. Teachers are now scrambling to figure out how do we check and make sure a bot didn't write this essay? Cuz you can literally tell it, write this in a fifth grade level in the voice of Donald Trump and it'll do it. Like what? Right Here is creation, where we're at. Virtual reality is another way we've re. Our mode of escapism. We don't even have to take vacations anymore. We are exa. We are imagining a day where we can just enter into a new world where you don't have to work out, you don't have to sweat, you don't have to go through trials. You're just immediately the hero and you look really good. We also have redefined reality and many good ways of course, and medical breakthroughs. We've redefined how long we live. Antibiotics, organ transplants, medical imaging is the reason many of us maybe even are here today. And let me be clear, I am very grateful to live in the 21st century. I am not that romantic type that wants to live in the 15 hundreds. I enjoy air conditioning. I enjoy the computer. I enjoy vehicles. Praise God. I enjoy that. I have a microphone right here, right now, and I don't have to yell. Now. With all these breakthroughs though, we have to recognize it does not come without side effects. There are many side effects to us redefining our reality. . These breakthroughs have come because of a core value of the modern age. We don't discover reality. We create it, which this is the boast of America, is it not? We don't discover it. We create it, and this works great as long as we live in a peaceful and orderly world, relying on things we don't really recognize until those things are gone. A k a pandemic, a k, a, you get the worst scare of your life getting a diagnosis, and now your redefinition of reality begins to unravel. A few months into the pandemic, psychologists and counselors were ringing the alarm. They said The only way to happiness is to actually accept reality for what it is. This was hard for. We are a generation who redefines reality, and now we're told we are happy once we stop trying to redefine it and just simply accept it. But studies have shown the quicker you are to accept your condition, the quicker you are to find hope. And those who bury their head in the sand or run after other conspiracy theories or whatever it is, they actually wind up multiplying their anxiety, which thus multiplies their illnesses, which thus makes life so much worse. M Scott Peck, he's an American psychology psychiatrist and bestselling author. He actually noted that mental health he has this quote, he says, mental health is dedication to reality at all costs. So in a generation today who is more obsessed with mental health than ever before, but lacking it more than ever before, will not do the one thing it says to do except reality for what it is he actually says in one of his books, if you expect life to be perfect, you will be very depressed and very frustrated. And I blame my parents cuz the millennial generation, we were told the nineties Disney era life was supposed to be great. And it's not now, but if you expect, here's what's incredible, the paradox of life. When you expect life to be hard, turns out to be full of joy, there's great moments of peace. You're actually really filled with purpose. See, as Americans, we find ourselves in this tension because redefining reality is one of the hallmarks of our culture. It's one of the hallmarks of our ingenuity and our individuality. But the same time, redefining our reality has turned out t

Afternoon, passion Creek. What a great day to be a part of this community. Amen. Exciting times ahead and as we prepare tonight for the word, let's take a look at Exodus chapter three. But Moses asked God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt? He answered, I will certainly be with you and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you. When you bring the people out of, You will all worship God at this mountain. Then Moses asks, God, if I go to the Israelites and I say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What should I tell them? God replied to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are To say to the Israelites I am has sent me to. Amen. Thank you Ron so much. If you guys can open your Bibles to that. In Exodus chapter three, we're just doing like a six part series on the life of Moses. And so, and leading up to, uh, when we we're finished, we're gonna be actually in the new place and we have a whole nother series we're really excited about as we start in the junior high. Uh, but Pastor Caleb, I thought did a phenomenal job last week. We learned, uh, many things, but one of the things in Exodus two is Moses, he did the right thing for all the wrong in all the wrong. , right? And so he was bothered by the oppression of his people. And so we see that he took matters into his own hands. He struck the Egyptian, hid him under the sand. And I don't, it seems kind of in the text, he wasn't particularly remorseful or guilty until he got caught. Uh, the next day, uh, the, uh, the Israelites were saying you were the one who murdered this Egyptian. And so what he does, kind of what all of us would do, he bottles up that shame and he runs away and he runs to the. So now we're back into the story where Moses' dreams are dashed. This royalty he was in the house of the Pharaoh, is now a refugee Moses, which actually means to be drawn out by water. This significant imagery of water is now stuck in a dry and barren desert. Everything his life thought was going to be is completely opposite. Now, what does he do? We actually learned in Acts chapter seven that Moses was in the wilderness here for 40 years, and at the 40 year mark, Moses noticed something out of the ordinary. Look at it mean. Look at it with me. In verse one of chapter three, it says, meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law jet. The priest of Midian, he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horrib the mountain of God. By the way, later, Horeb is also the same phrase for Sinai, which is where Moses gets the 10 Commandments. We'll probably talk more about that later in a few, uh, messages. Why does he say hob sometimes than Sinai and other, but it's pretty significant. Verse two, then an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. We first need to give Moses props for noticing, right? Like most of us, especially today, we are so focused on getting attention that we never give enough space to give attention. Especially in our economy and our world of attention grabbing with social media. How many of us are even at a spot like Pastor Caleb said to practice last week? Silence and solitude. If Moses wasn't practicing silence and solitude, maybe he would've never seen this bush and maybe this story wouldn't have happened. Look at verse three. So Moses thought I must go over and look at this remarkable. Why isn't the bush burning up now? Scholars have long debated the significance of the burning bush. Lemme give you a few theories of what people think the bush and the fire represent. Uh, the first one is the bush is Israel and the fire is the oppression of Egypt. And so bush, uh, what's interesting too about Israel, that it's a very. Israel has always kind of mentioned as just common people. There's nothing particularly amazing about them, just that God chose them, which by the way, amen. Nothing particularly great about you, but God loves you and that's what makes you so great. All right, so the bush is Israel, and what's interesting here is the fire, which would normally do wet to a bush, completely dissipate it. Instead, the bush is still living. And it's a picture. Some scholars point to the fact that although Israel is in the midst of slavery and oppression with seemingly no way out, they're still strong despite being enslaved, despite them wanting to kill all of the sons, they're still here. Another example though of the bush. The bush equals God's imminence and the fire equals God's transcendence. These are big theological terms. Let me explain. Imminence simply means that God isn't just high in the sky. He is with us. He's present with his people in the most ordinary of circumstances in the most ordinary of ways. If you hear Christmas Eve, we talked about how Jesus is fully. Right. He is imminent. He is with us.

During the advent season, we are called to celebrate the first coming of Christ and anticipate His second coming. This means we celebrate the fact that sin has lost its power over believers and anticipate the day sin loses its presence among believers. But in a season filled with joy and anticipation, we still feel the pain and tension of living between the two comings of Christ. Although the devil has lost its dominion over us, he still has an opinion that can influence us. His lies create in us a spirit of arrogance, anxiety, and apathy. In 1 Peter 5, the Apostle gives us 3 ways to resist the roaring lies of the devil.

If you ask 10 people what they expect from their pastor, you will probably get 20 different answers. Throughout history, pastors have been expected to be all sorts of things. But what does God expect the pastor to do? In 1 Peter 5:1-4, God lays out the three expectations for every pastor: to be an elder, a shepherd, and an overseer. In this message, we will learn what these terms mean and how it effects our life with Jesus today.

By the grace of God, you will encounter a fork in the road where you have to make a decision: you can live by faith in Jesus, or you can die by fire without Him (Matthew 25). If you put your faith in Jesus, you can’t help but express your joy through songs like, “I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor to the ground, my hope and firm foundation, He’ll never let me down.” But what happens when it seems like He does let us down? We set ourselves up for major disappointment when we confuse our eternal condition with our present one. Because contrary to popular belief, stepping up your faith is stepping into fire… and that’s a good thing. In 1 Peter 4, we are encouraged to look at our trials like a fiery furnace: burning off our impurities & idolatries to further glorify Christ. In this message, we will learn about the three stages of faith that only come from stepping into the fire.

Your threshold for pain can withhold your purpose. Your threshold for pain can tenfold your purpose. 1 Peter 4:1-11 CSB

Words like “submission” and “authority” aren’t very popular in our western world. To follow a way of life that instructs people to submit to one another seems archaic at best and abusive at worst. But properly understood, the practice of submission is life-giving and freeing. In 1 Peter 3, Peter pastors women in the church to lovingly submit to and respect their husbands. He also instructs husbands to lovingly serve and care for their wives. This idea of service and submission is echoed throughout scripture. Jesus himself teaches that true leadership and power actually comes through service and submission. The practice of submission then isn’t just for women, couples, or children. It’s a practice for all Christians that actually leads to the good life.

Although the culture we live in pushes us to create our own individual identities, our brains are wired to find our identity within the context of a group. Naturally, we discern our purpose, discover our belonging, and decide our values based on the communities we find ourselves in. As followers of Jesus, it is incredibly important to shape our group identity and practices around the humility and confidence given to us through the gospel. In 1 Peter 2, Peter warns us to avoid the common practices of the culture around them: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, and encourages us to center our lives on the cornerstone of grace. Today, we live out this same identity by practicing humility and confidence within our community. 1 Peter 2:1-10 CSB

Genesis 12:1-3; Revelation 7:9 Throughout the storyline of the Bible, we see that God’s desire is to bless all of humanity. It starts with Adam and Eve, but rather than spread God’s blessing and goodness to the world, they spread sin and death. But God doesn’t leave humanity hopeless and helpless. Instead, he chooses the people group of Israel to provide blessing and healing to the rest of the world. As a nation of people set apart by God, Israel was given the unique opportunity of allowing God to bless the whole world through them. Today, we have the same opportunity. But rather than waiting for the nations to come to us, Jesus’ last command while on earth was to go to the nations ourselves. As we allow ourselves to be formed by Jesus, we must remember that we do this for the sake of others and not just for our own self-improvement. We also must remember that God’s intention is to restore all of humanity from all nations. By intentionally praying for the nations, giving sacrificially, and by actually going to the nations, we can continue God’s work of providing blessing and salvation to the rest of the world.

Our workplace is one of the most strategic places where we can effectively share the gospel. We spend roughly 1/3rd of our life there, we regularly interact with the same people there, and we contribute to the well-being of society by what we do there. However, most of us also have negative feelings and experiences associated with work. We wake up, toil, grind, and come home exhausted only to do it again the next day. Or we work tirelessly to get more power, approval, security, and comfort. At its best, work is a necessary evil. At its worst, work is a false god that never gives us what it promises. But the way of Jesus provides us an alternative: to see our work as the means by which God uses us to restore beauty, goodness, and well-being to the world around us. By seeing our work through this lens of restoration, we can start detaching ourselves from these lies about work and begin utilizing our workplaces to invite other into the way of Jesus. Rather than living to work and working to live, followers of Jesus can love to work and work to love.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to share the way of Jesus with our lost neighbors. Political tribalism, spiritual suspicion, and the recent phenomenon of religious deconstruction all form a perfect storm of hostility towards Christians who try to invite others to follow Jesus. In Jesus’ day, the world was much the same. But rather than combat or retreat from the world, Jesus confronts the world’s hostility with hospitality. The meals that Jesus shared with others were invitations to relationship, opportunities for reconciliation, and a demonstration of the love that God has for all people. Today our mission and outreach must come from our discipleship to Jesus, and not the other way around. This means that we must learn the practice of hospitality as a way to invite others to witness the love of God. When we share a meal with others, we remind ourselves that God chose to seat us at his table in the Kingdom despite our sin. We also demonstrate to our neighbors that the love of God is on offer to everyone who wants to accept it. Mark 2:13-17

In our day and age, healthy relationships built on mutual love and service between generations are rare. We easily find ourselves frustrated with the problems left behind by those older than us, or frustrated by the ambition and naiveite of those younger than us. But these frustrations only keep us stuck in our own struggles and fears. Those in their first half of life find themselves ambitious, but lonely. Those in their second half of life find themselves faithful, but angry. In Titus 2, Paul gives practical instruction on how we can overcome these frustrations by mending our relationships. When we commit to listening to and learning from others in different life stages, we complete the family of Christ and act as an alternative community who prizes each other’s gifts and stages.

Honest relationships, genuine connections, and healthy friendships are all hard to come by in our modern age. While we might experience increased connectedness through the internet and social media, most of us lack real friendships with other people. As a result, we default into radical individualism or rugged tribalism, both of which feed our experienced loneliness and isolation. But the way of Jesus offers us a remedy to our loneliness by way of community. When Jesus lived on earth, he entered a world of broken people and invited them to live life with him. And the community that he formed with these people wasn’t jeopardized by their drastic differences. Instead, their relationships with each other were strengthened by their commitment to their rabbi. Today, we can experience the same type of life-giving relationships by adopting Jesus’ 4 components of community: Proximity, Vulnerability, Practice, and Mission.

Until recently, disciples of Christ Jesus always valued and treasured the weekly gathering of the saints. It was a consistent place and time to habituate our minds, hearts, and bodies toward a community of love, joy, and peace through the acts of worship, service, and communion. But with the advent of the internet, do we really need to be together in person to accomplish these functions of the church? Looking to the wisdom of 1 Peter 4:7-11, we learn the grace of God is poured out on the saints when they gather together to stay alert, love each other deeply, and open up their hearts without grumbling. By humbly using our gifts to serve one another in the church, we reject the lies from the world that community must be entertaining, idealistic, virtual, and tribal.

Life is more demanding and complex than we all imagined it would be. To take the edge off, we look to stories to help us make sense of life. In the modern age, the default narrative we believe is the myth of self-actualization and self-expression. But have we ever stopped to question how helpful this story has been for our souls and our society? Following the leadership of Jesus, we learn to resist the lies of the Enemy by adopting His teachings of reality. We experience this freedom by (1) identifying an anxious thought or feeling, (2) detecting the lie beneath the sensation, and (3) declaring the truth of God’s word to our weary and wounded souls.

The end goal of the Christian life is to commune with God so that we become people of love, joy, and peace for the sake of our neighbors (Ga 5:13; 16-26). The problem many of us face is that we simply don’t know how to get there. Without a roadmap, we naturally give all our attention and time to self-gratification, pleasure, and selfish ambition. Instead, Jesus offers us a better way to live. By learning to walk in the Spirit rather than in our flesh, we slowly begin to kill the desires of our flesh. We do this by training ourselves with the practices of Jesus rather than trying to better ourselves through our own willpower.

The Modern Age believes change exclusively comes from more knowledge. As a result, civilization is convinced it will progress into a utopia as our access to information increases exponentially. But how do we explain the evil and brokenness we still see in the educated regions of the world? How can we explain the gap between what we know is right and our perpetual failure to do what is right? Knowing the anatomy of the soul, Jesus, our Rabbi, doesn’t just inform our intellect but shapes our desires. By default, our desires are shaped by the world in 3 ways: (1) the lust of the flesh (2) the lust of the eyes, and (3) pride in one’s possessions [1 Jn. 2:15-17]. But by design, we can begin to redirect our desires by anchoring our identity in the love Jesus has for us through the consistent practice of abiding [1 Jn. 4:7-16].

Rather than allowing ourselves to be formed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, Jesus offers us a better way to live. When we allow ourselves to be formed by Jesus, we slowly become steadfast people who are able to love others the way that God loves us. In order to do this, we must position ourselves to be formed by Jesus’ love, life, and leadership. Leaving out any one or two of these elements makes us stuck, stubborn, or stingy. Matthew 11:28-30

Is it okay to pray for yourself? Isn't it selfish? In this message, we actually learn our lack of "selfish" prayers says a lot more about our misunderstanding of God and His love toward us. Luke 11:1-13 CSB

God can work with any plan, but He will only work through His power. 2 Corinthians 12:6-10, Acts 1:6-8 CSB

Psalm 103 CSB In this message, I talk about how we overcome the biggest obstacle to prayer: condemnation.

Luke 24:13-35 CSB We are counseled by God through the Scriptures. We commune with God through the Sacraments. We are comforted by God through the Spirit. We are connected to God through the Savior.

Ecclesiastes 7:13-18 - We learn how to deal with disappointment by leaning into the Father, not into a formula.

Ecclesiastes 5 CSB

The seasons of life are always up and down. All we can do is manage what we've been given and give glory to God every step of the way. Ecclesiastes 3

In a secular world without God, mankind rushes to find meaning in other places like justice, pleasure, and work. In today’s hustle culture, a career has the allure of solving all our problems. But is work really working? Does it satisfy our eternal ache for significance, contribution, and recognition? With the help of a successful entrepreneur, Ecclesiastes teaches us the limits of our labor. The work never ends, it multiplies our grief, and keeps us in the captivity of tomorrow. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t call us away from work but a new way to work. Ecclesiastes 2:18-26; 4:4-6 CSB

We should do whatever it takes to get happy and stay happy. At least that is what our culture tells us every single day. But is this pursuit of pleasure working? Is it really what we are made to pursue? With the help of an embittered Teacher, Ecclesiastes teaches us the paradox of pleasure: the more we pursue it, the more we will lose it. This isn’t to say God wants us to be miserable. Quite the opposite. We were made for something so much more than pleasure. Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, 24-25 CSB

Time, chance, and death are the enemies of hope. Most of us try to escape these enemies through romance, creativity, or religion. But every endeavor is ultimately futile and meaningless in the hands of mortal men. But what if immortality made a visit? 2,000 years ago, Jesus promised us a life free from the chains of time, chance, and death. He delivered on this promise when He rose again on the third day. In this message, we will cover the different paths we take to find meaning and discover why the resurrection is the only hope we have. 1 Corinthians 15; Ecclesiastes 1