We were blessed with a full Lord’s Day yesterday, and there were several resources and tools we used. If you weren’t able to take advantage of these last Sunday, or wish to revisit them, please check out the resources below!

Men’s Breakfast

As we closed out 2019 with our last Men’s Ministry breakfast, we focused on passing on the faith through mentoring. Check out this encouraging teaching on wisely passing on faith from mature Christians to others.

Money & Wealth In Christian Hedonism

The whole world lives for pleasure, right? The only difference is theirs is fleeting — ours is forever. That’s not the only difference. Ours is Jesus. So, he checks out and weighs in the balance all that Egypt could offer him, all that serving with the people under the reproach of Christ could offer him, and he chooses the reproaches of Jesus. Why? Verse 26: “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth.”

How are you doing? Is being made fun of part of your treasure, that you love? “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.” How? “For he was looking to the reward.” That’s where it came from. The thesis of this message is: if this reward — pleasures at your right hand; joy forevermore — goes down to the marrow of your bones so that you know, “Instead of being dead, I will be with Christ forever,” — joy forever — that will become the root of all your love of the people of God and the nations of the world, so that you can embrace reproaches for Christ and call them, “My wealth.” This is just utterly different from the world. Read more here.

Sermon: In the Fullness of Time

God was preparing the way centuries before the birth of His Son in Bethlehem.

How did God prepare the way? Since God rules over human history, He undoubtedly shaped the history of the nations, including the dominance of the Roman Empire that had an impact on Israel, on Jesus, and on the spread of the Gospel by the early Christian church. Certainly this was a part of God’s preparation, for God uses the history of the nations to achieve His purposes. Read more here.

Sr. High Youth Group

When It Isn’t All Merry And Bright
Because let’s be real – the holidays can be awful, making everything feel more intense. Our parents’ divorces, fights with friends, break-ups, deaths, all we don’t like about ourselves and our lives can sting a bit deeper with the ‘glad tidings of great joy’ swirling around us.

The pressure to keep it all together, to look ‘merry and bright’ can be overwhelming. But you don’t need to pretend that everything is okay. Every moment doesn’t have to be Instagram-worthy.

King David, the author of the above scripture, was no stranger to suffering. He was a man after God’s own heart, and he wrote a song that started with, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).

What we hear in Psalm 22 is raw lament to God. And we know from Scripture that God heard him. Read more here.