Every year we use Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday momentum to rally our church to the gospel origins of Christian generosity and incarnational ministry. Because Jesus gave himself, we give ourselves in response. This series will take 3 weeks to orient our church family around the idea of church planting in Lexington and Knoxville. Find out more about our efforts to plant these churches here.
What's Killing Me
At the beginning of each year, our culture focuses all its effort on bettering itself. Losing weight, eating better, and making better choices are on most people's mind as they seek to establish a better year than the one before. Often, the things that most interfere with our joy are internal. Things like anger, lust, and anxiety constantly seek to entrap us, ensnare us and make a ruin of our life and vitality.
This series takes a look at common hang-ups and frustrations that most people deal with, and discover together how the good news of Jesus frees us from them.
E-BOOK
To accompany this series, we've created an interactive e-book. The e-book contains inventories to help you work through the series on a practical level.
Sermons:
|giv| 2014
Every year around the holidays, we participate in something we like to call |giv|. We spend time talking about what God did in |giv|ing us Jesus, and then spend time |giv|ing in return. Through the years, we’ve looked for needs in our city and our world, and then partnered together to help meet those needs. Through the years, we’ve done things like…
- |giv|ing shoes to people without them
- |giv|ing money to plant churches in India
- |giv|ing hoodies to people in the cold in Columbia
- |giv|ing Christmas presents to kids in the Yucatan peninsula
- |giv|ing safe houses to children rescued out of sex slavery
- |giv|ing to plant a church in inner-city Columbia.
Because He gave, we |giv|. It’s that simple.
(Part of the Luke series)
Sermons:
#Ferguson, Race & the Gospel
Man Sunday
Mother's Day 2014
Abide
A deep spiritual life is something many people desire, regardless of their background. Even many people who claim to be non-religious consider themselves to be spiritual people. Jesus tells us in the gospel of John that we get to abide in him. What does that mean? How do we approach our relationship with Jesus in such a way that we are regularly abiding in and enjoying him? And more specifically, how do things like prayer, fasting, and rest contribute to a healthy spiritual life? And more practically, how should we incorporate those things into our lives without simply adding unnecessary pressure to ourselves?
Sermons:
Glory Thieves
In our culture, we have a tendency to downplay the gloriousness of God. We tend to think God thinks like us, talks like us, and is nonchalant like us. But the truth is that in terms of his holiness and character, God is very different than us. Speaking of God's holiness, author A.W. Tozer writes, "It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine." And if God is the one with all the glory, we are the glory thieves. Much of what we do is centered around redirecting the honor due God, and attempting to redirect it towards ourselves. This is why we talk about ourselves, tweet about ourselves, take selfies of ourselves, and all-in-all worship ourselves.
Luckily, God doesn't just leave us to our own devices. God's response to us as glory thieves is just, gracious, and, well–glorious.
Sermons:
Grassroots Kingdom
All throughout history, God has been forming a people for Himself–a people to put His love and glory on display for those around them. This culminated in Jesus instituting the church, God's grassroots kingdom–a beautiful and unexpected plan for transforming the world. What started with a few dozen disciples has spawned into millions upon millions of people all over the world. Jesus is building His church. He's advancing His kingdom, and although he doesn't need us, by His grace we are invited right into the thick of it. Welcome to the grassroots kingdom.
book
As part of this series, we've produced a book to give additional information and application for the teaching.
Sermons:
|giv| 2013
Giving something means taking what is yours and giving it to others, free of charge. Christmas is the celebration of how God gave his one and only son so that we could be forgiven, free of charge. So each year for Christmas, we rally together to respond to what God has given us:
- by |giv|ing shoes to people without them
- by |giv|ing money to church planters in India
- by |giv|ing hoodies to people in the cold in Columbia
- by |giv|ing Christmas presents to kids in the Yucatan peninsula
- by |giv|ing safe houses to children rescued out of sex slavery
- much, much more.
Because He gave, we |giv|. It’s that simple.
Sermons:
The Good Life
What will truly deliver The Good Life? Can we get there by buying new things? Experiencing new things? Being respected by more people? Accomplishing more feats? Making more money? Most anything we do or say is built on the premise that everyone deserves The Good Life.
The bible doesn’t tell us we shouldn’t search for happiness, but rather that we’re not searching hard enough. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tries to find The Good Life in most any way possible. He attempts riches, wisdom, pleasure, accomplishments, respect, and most anything else we could think of–and comes up empty. He discovers that the truest Good Life is not found in things on earth, but in seeing everything in light of eternity.
A Guide to the Good Life
As part of this series, we published an accompanying study guide.
Sermons:
Featured
A Green Van & Duct Tape
So much of our church history has had a raggedy flavor to it. We’ve had skittles given as offerings, broken-down church vans, and a church-wide policy to split duct tape in order to save money. So much of our story includes throwing stuff together the best we can, then asking Jesus to put the pieces together.
But to be honest, we wouldn’t change a bit of it if we could. In so many ways, God has used the raggedness to keep us focused on the things that matter–being a Jesus-centered family on mission.
For six weeks we're remembering where we came from and reminding ourselves of the type of church family God has called us to be.
Videos:
Series Intro
Family as Change
The Gospel for Everyone
Family as Light
Jesus is Better Than Idols
Disciples Through Relationships
Sermons:
Featured
Ordination 2013
The Gospel & Homosexuality
How should believers in Jesus interact with the issue of homosexuality and those who identify as homosexual?
Stand-Alone: The Goodness of Gathering
Treasure Hunting
Money is on most of our top five lists for the things we least like to talk about. We don’t like people knowing how little we have, how much we have, or how much we wish we had. Scripture, on the other hand, talks about money a lot. The interesting thing is, it’s almost never only about money. Jesus didn’t talk about money so that he could take up a bigger offering. Instead, he used the subject of money to help us discover important things about ourselves. Money is important to talk about, not because we should necessarily have more or less of it, but simply because it shows us what we love—what we care about the most. Jesus says that where our treasure (money) is, there our heart will be also. So you can discover what you care about most by figuring out where your money most naturally flows to. In other words, your treasure shows what you treasure.
Sermons:
Featured
Outlier*
He’s influenced more world leaders, inspired more art, and had more biographies written about him than any other person in human history. Yet, during his life, he was homeless, never had any kids, never ran for political office, and never traveled more than a few hundred miles from his hometown. How does this happen? What was it about a simple carpenter from Nazareth that has altered history forever?
Sermons:
Galatians
It’s one belief that the late atheist Christopher Hitchens and the apostle Paul had in common. Paul believed so fervently that religion and works-based righteousness tainted everything that he wrote an entire letter to the church at Galatia warning them about it. In the book of Galatians, Paul writes with increasing angst and intensity to warn the Galatians of the poison and detriment caused by believing that works of the law can make a person right before God. Specifically, works-righteousness creates self-righteousness and self-righteousness is one of the most destructive mindsets that exists. It creates a pride in self and a judgmental, condescending attitude towards others who don’t “measure up.”
But Paul doesn’t conclude by simply bashing religion. He gives an alternative to religion: the gospel of Jesus. The gospel declares that we are simultaneously more sinful than we could imagine and more loved, through the cross and resurrection, than we could ever hope for. The gospel eliminates both arrogance and self-pity.
Sermons:
|giv| 2012
The holiday season is generally marked by consumerism, consumption, and materialism. But God sees Christmas in a whole different light. Leaving the comforts of heaven, He came to earth as the man Jesus, on a rescue mission to seek and save what was lost. Each year, we take a few weeks to talk about Jesus' incarnation, and its implications on our lives.
Alongside each year's |giv| series, we all rally around a project to be generous to, in response to Jesus' generosity to us. In past years we've given shoes and jackets to Columbia's homeless population, built safe houses for boys and girls rescued out of India's sex slave industry, translated the bible into the Huba language, and given Christmas gifts to kids in the Yucatan peninsula.
Sermons:
A Marriage You'd Actually Want
So many people have seen or experienced bad marriages that marriage is seen as useless or as hell on earth. At the same time, some deify the idea of marriage as their ultimate hope, bringing an end to their hell of single unhappiness. This 10-week series takes an honest look at marriage, unpacks God's intention for it, and paints the picture of a marriage you'd actually want.
Book:
As part of this series, we produced an accompanying book. The Campaign Resource Guide includes additional reading and discussion questions for each week.
Sermons:
Videos:
How We Met
Friendship with Benefits
The Only Reason a Marriage Fails
Servant Lovers