6/14 - Songs of a Shepherd | Rebellion or Refuge

This Sunday, we continued our sermon series on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus with Ephesians 4:1-16. Co-lead pastor Ricky walked through what it looks like to live out the family of Christ. When we are saved from sin, Jesus doesn't just save us into eternal life with him—but into eternal life with his God's communal people! In these verses, we learned the foundation of family in Christ, the fight for family and walking in humility and the fruit of family as we grow into spiritual maturity. 

Praise God! We are not designed to live alone as we pursue Jesus, but to pursue him in beautiful unity with the body of Christ. Thank you, Lord, for the incredible family of believers you put around us.

This week, we celebrated our fourth birthday as a church family! Praise God! We rejoiced by baptizing eight new believers into the family of God. Co-lead pastor Ricky spoke on Acts 21:40-22:46. In these verses, we learned that Jesus wrote Paul's story and washed away both his physical and spiritual blindness. Jesus saves both the lawless and the legalistic! 

Now, we see that Jesus is writing our story. He's writing our story as a church, and he's writing your story in your life. Praise God! Jesus is continuing to transform and change lives throughout all of history.

In this week's sermon, co-lead pastor Ricky Kennedy continues through our series "Follow Me: What it Means to Be a Disciple of Jesus" with his sermon on Matthew 28:16-20. In these verses, we learn what the most valuable component of following Jesus: making disciples of others. First, we see Jesus's authority and realize that the Great Commission rests firmly on the authority of Jesus Christ, not on our own authority. 

Then, we see the assignment Jesus gives his followers: the Great Commission is a command, not a suggestion. Finally, we feel the assurance Jesus provides. We don't go forward and make disciples on our own, but remember that Jesus is with us always, for all time. Praise God! We get to join him in his mission to share the joy of the Gospel with the entire world!

In this week's sermon on 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, we welcomed guest pastor Nate Morgan from Citylight North Lincoln. Nate continued our series "Follow Me" by teaching on our mission to get the Gospel OUT. We learned why we witness and how we witness. We witness to others because we live gospel-centered lives, and the purpose of these lives is to share God's message with every tribe, tongue and nation. 

How we witness is by putting aside our personal preferences in order to remove any obstacles people might have towards the Gospel. If people reject Jesus, we don't want it to be because of a secondary issue that we made primary. Praise God—he has brought us into his mission to share the Gospel, and we are his ideal representatives!

This week, we continued our series on what it looks like to follow Jesus with servanthood. Youth ministry resident Matt Reed walked us through John 13:1-17: The Joy to Serve. We learned that followers of Jesus lay aside their worldly standing in order to put on godly servanthood. In his last few moments on earth, Jesus took on the form of a slave to wash his disciples' feet. 

In the same way, Jesus commands his disciples to serve others. While there are many reasons we try to avoid serving, we should serve (and do so with the right heart) because Christ first served us. Praise God for his sacrificial service!

In this week's sermon on Luke 12:13-34, co-lead pastor Ricky Kennedy walked through our next component of what it means to follow Jesus: stewardship. We learned five principles of stewardship: (1) money is powerful; (2) everything we own actually belongs to God; (3) our money & possessions should be used for God's purposes; (4) worldly wealth is fleeting; heavenly wealth is eternal; and (5) giving generously breaks the power of money. 

While the world will tell us that money is awkward, money shouldn't be discussed, money is ours to use as we see fit, money should be what we strive for, etc., Jesus talks openly about money and urges us not to find our identity or security in it. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God! For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In this week's sermon on Ephesians 5:1-21, co-lead pastor Ricky Kennedy continues our series on following Jesus: what it means to be a disciple. He asked the question: "Who are you becoming?" We are all becoming like someone, and as disciples of Jesus, our goal is to become more like him. We learned about the purpose of life: to imitate God and become more like him. 

Then, we walked through the path of life, which is sanctification. Sanctification involves beholding Jesus, loving and believing him and then obeying and following him. Praise God! We are sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to live in gratitude towards God, practice holy habits and live in community.

This week, co-lead pastor Alex preached the next sermon in our series called Follow me: What it means to be a disciple of Jesus. He walked us through John 15:1-17 where we see the famous instructions of Jesus to remain in him, the True Vine. From these versus we first unpacked what it actually means to remain or abide in Jesus; using the words of A. W. Tozer as a helpful guide, "habitual, conscious communion with God." Then we talked about the beauty of remaining with God, which is that we actually get to personally KNOW the living God! What an amazing reality! Lastly, remaining in Jesus affords us the privilege of bearing fruit according to our passage! What a joy it is to know that our God, despite our weakness and shortcomings has given us a way to know him intimately and become like him increasingly through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This week, co-lead pastor Ricky continued our sermon series called: Follow me: What it means to be a disciple of Jesus. He took us through Exodus 20:1-5 where we see God's commandment to worship Him and Him alone. It's through this passage that brought us to our second core identity as a disciple of Jesus: a worshiper! In these verses we saw first what it means to worship as God designed it but also the way we can skew worship and worship things that will never leave us satisfied. We see that the only place our worship is rightly placed is in our savior, Jesus Christ! Lastly, we will grow in worship when we see God, love and believe Him, and obey Him. Praise Jesus, that we have something, or rather Someone, that will not leave us unsatisfied and searching in our worship but who is completely worthy of it all!

This week, co-lead pastor Alex launched our new sermon series called Follow Me: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? He walked through Mark 1:16-20 as Jesus invited his disciples to drop their nets and follow him in discipleship. In these verses, we learn that first and foremost discipleship of Jesus starts with Jesus himself. He calls us, not the other way around. 

Then, we follow Jesus by being around him, looking like him and doing what he did. Discipleship is apprenticeship of how he lived his life. Praise God! Even when we fail, he is the one who continually draws us back into discipleship.