A new year means new possibilities, new directions, new priorities…or at least a chance to reinvest in priorities we need to tackle in new ways. Faith Church will invest in discipleship in our secular age as we seek to become informed and winsome ambassadors of Christ.
Flourish
Sermons in this series
Sermon Notes
Join us for “What’s a Disciple?” from 2nd Corinthians 3:18, the first in our new series, “Flourish”!
Sermon Notes
Everyone is a disciple, a follower of somebody. The question is, Who am I following? We’ll look at 1 Peter 1-2 and the image of Christians as “chosen exiles.” The world demands our attention and devotion and seeks to conform us to its ways. Though we live in this world, we reflect the values and priorities of another king and his kingdom. Join us for Resident Aliens from 1 Peter 1:1-2, 2:4-12
Sermon Notes
When St. Paul entered ancient Athens, he saw that the city was incredibly religious but spiritually dead. The secular age we inhabit is much the same. What can we learn from Paul’s approach in Athens that helps us as we seek to become informed and winsome ambassadors for Christ? Join us as we explore objects of worship In Our Secular World from Acts 17:16-23.
Sermon Notes
When asked what the most important teaching in the Old Testament was, Jesus responded simply: love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What might Jesus’ emphasis on the priority of love have to teach us about discipleship? Join us as we look at Matthew 22:34-40 and explore “The Priority of Love.”
Sermon Notes
Jeremiah was not known as a particularly encouraging prophet. So when he saw the faithlessness of the people of Israel, he used a provocative metaphor to try to shock the people into realizing the gravity of their sin. Putting the people’s relationship with God in the picture of a marriage, he challenged Israel to repent of their spiritual adultery. Join us as we study the contemporary application of Jeremiah 2 in the next sermon in our Flourish series, Disordered Love, from Jeremiah 2:1-13, 20-25, 32-33.
Sermon Notes
We’ve spent the last two weeks at Faith exploring the idea that our deepest orientation to the world is through what we love. So how do we share the gospel with friends, neighbors, and coworkers in a way that appeals to the heart? From 2nd Corinthians 4:1-12, we’ll discover how an encounter with the beauty of God in Christ radically transformed the Apostle Paul’s deepest loves.
Sermon Notes
In light of our resurrection with Christ, Paul admonishes us in Colossians chapter 3 to put to death what is earthly in us and to put on virtue, bound together with love. Join us as we explore how God forms our character, in “Put on Love,” from Colossians 3:1-17.
Sermon Notes
We’re all being shaped according to a goal or pattern – the question is by what? The patterns of our lives reflect our ultimate values. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, Paul encourages us that we can use our freedom in Christ to take on habits that will shape our hearts for God and his Kingdom. Join us in worship as we look at Habits of the Heart.
Sermon Notes
We are made for relationship. We will not grow to be what God intends on our own. Join us as we look at how we grow as disciples of Jesus in the context of spiritual friendships from Acts 20:36 – 21:8.
Sermon Notes
“For freedom Christ has set us free,” says the Apostle Paul. But freedom from what? Freedom to do what? We’ll turn to Galatians 5 to explore the life of virtue we are free to explore through life in the Spirit of God.
Sermon Notes
The great reformer Martin Luther once wrote that the gospel has to be “beat into our heads continually” because believers are prone to forget the grace with which we have been saved. This week we turn to Titus 2:11-3:11 to explore Paul’s exhortation to a young pastor to declare the gospel, insist on the gospel, and remind people of the implications of the gospel. What might we learn about the ongoing applicability of the gospel to our lives today? Join us for Gospel Renewal.
Sermon Notes
We live in a world dominated by stories, and in many ways, we don’t know how to act unless we know what story we’re in and what role we’re playing. That’s one of the lessons we learn from Jeremiah’s famous letter to the exiles in Babylon. Join us as we reframe our lives within a larger story in “Storytime” from Jeremiah 29:1-23.
Sermon Notes
The Apostle Peter’s first letter was written to be circulated among Christian communities scattered all over Asia Minor. These churches existed in areas that were overtly antagonistic to their presence. How is the church supposed to live in such a climate? How should the church posture herself to that world? We’ll explore 1st Peter 3:13-17, “Gentle Defense,” and learn from this ancient letter how we should relate to our modern world.
Sermon Notes
Part of our winsomeness towards a secular culture is to approach the world in the same way Jesus did. This doesn’t mean that we look to Jesus’s actions in particular, but to his mission in general. Can we identify with the world around us, pursue those in it, and offer them life through sacrificial love? We explore “The Same Mind,” from Philippians 2:1-11.
Sermon Notes
In Jeremiah 29, God tells his people in exile not to hate or withdraw from the place they’re living, but to commit to, bless and even love their community in exile. That’s a helpful pattern for us as winsome ambassadors to our world. Join us as we look at what it means for us as Jesus’ disciples to seek the Common Good.
Sermon Notes
In this final message in our Flourish series, we’ll pull together all that we’ve seen about discipleship. Missional Spirituality is life with God, for the world; it’s the kind of life where human flourishing takes place, a life modeled for us by Jesus, a life in which we can pour ourselves out for our neighbors because of our relationship with the God who poured himself out for us. Join us as we look at John 17:13-19.