2 Corinthians 5:14 - 6:1
Steve Thomas. We honor Jesus and fulfill our responsibility as His Ambassadors by prioritizing and living out His message of reconciliation (bring others back to God through Jesus).
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1 Corinthians 12:22-27
Jaci Anderson. Paul is alerting the Corinthians to Satan’s divide-and-conquer strategy and urges them to resist with the truth that they are inescapably one body with many parts. Because we are made in the image of a triune God and can do nothing other than bear his image of oneness, we exist in loving equal relationship with one another. This is not something we attain, but a oneness based in the Holy Spirit. Our standard of wellbeing in the body of Christ is the whole body well-being, not just any one part.
E-Course mentioned in the message: https://www.resmaa.com/courses
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Romans 1-8
Matt Cullen. Paul clearly defines the gospel in Romans 1-8. Just because we may “think we know” the gospel, doesn’t mean we don’t need to hear it again. Not only so, but we need the gospel today, right now. It is the pattern by which we grow: Hear from God when we’re out of alignment, what the Bible calls sin; Trust that Christ is enough and that He has made you right with God again and again; and Trust that He continues to set us free and that the internal conversations about you not being enough and not measuring up are simply not true.
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Acts 6-18
Jaci Anderson. Acts 6-18 contains four critical stories of people taking radical risks that reveal the beauty of the Incarnate Kingdom. The stories of the Greecian Widows, The Ethiopian Eunuch, The Household of Cornelius, and the High City Council of Athens stir us to consider questions that help us find ourselves in these scriptures. We consider what the Holy Spirit might be leading us to risk during this pandemic that might reveal Incarnate Kingdom beauty.
Questions from the message:
How is the Holy Spirit leading you to come out from the edges or from the shadows?
How is the Spirit leading you to admit biases that are keeping you from the common good you desire?
How might the Spirit be leading you into a place of belonging?
What small step of following the Holy Spirit do you feel led to take?
How might the Spirit be revealing something more vividly that has always been there?
Do you desire to receive the Holy Spirit for the first time, or in more fullness in your life?
In what places of influence might the Spirit be giving you favor?
Are you feeling led to risk your reputation on behalf of the Lord of Heaven and Earth?
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Mark 16:1-8
Barbara Sunofsky. The gospels give us models for endings and new beginnings...and the way that Jesus ended, his ending always includes hope, it always includes new life, resurrection, and even his death includes life. In a crazy way the kingdom of heaven has come to earth and we, each of us, are invited to the party! Jesus is alive, and so should we be! Hallelujah!
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John 1:1-5, 10-18
Matt Cullen. One of Jesus' closest friends was the Apostle John, writer of this gospel and 4 other New Testament books. John spent a lot of time with Jesus and has some INCREDIBLE things to tell us about Him. Why does this make a difference? How does this make a difference for us in our day to day life, especially in light of the fears and uncertainties of the Coronavirus outbreak? Is there ANY certainty anywhere? The Bible has a resounding YES answer to that question. Let's "lean into" Him who is certain in these uncertain times.
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Luke 14:25-35
Ryan Longnecker. Looking at Luke 13-18 we see Jesus moving love into action. At the end of chapter 14, Jesus calls people to count the cost of what it means to love our neighbor. Love does the things no one wants to do and Jesus calls that the flavor of his people. We begin with a responsive reading of Psalm 91 led by Pastor Barbara. You can find the responsive psalm on our LBCF Live page. Ryan ends the message with a Welcome Prayer which can also be found on the Live page.
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Mark 14:1-9
Brandon Cook. We have been conditioned to see God the All-Powerful, and indeed, the Creator-God must be beyond our comprehension of power. Yet scripture whispers to us a both-and: God is also the All-Vulnerable one. In this message, we explore what it means to see God the All-Vulnerable and how this is a God we cannot just worship and not just fear, but also love.
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Matthew 5:21-22, 38-39, 43-44
Brandon Cook. In learning to read Scripture like Jesus did, we may be surprised to discover that Scripture does not always speak with a uniform voice but is actually a dialogue with competing points of view. How then do we read Scripture in a Spirit-formed way? In this message, we explore how Jesus always interpreted Scripture to emphasize the compassion and love of God and creating space for the marginalized.
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Luke 22:14-20
Brandon Cook. We, the church, suffer from an inadequate theology of delight and pleasure. The incarnation, after all, is about being embodied, and bodies are made in large part for pleasure. In this message, we explore how Jesus himself exemplifies the practice of delight and pleasure as an act of worship, even in the midst of sorrow and pain. When we engage our bodies as Jesus did, we can become a source of comfort and hope for the world around us.
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Exodus 3:2-15, Luke 1:28-35
Jaci Anderson and Rob Smidt. In this double homily, we explore the Advent theme “Joy.” In the incarnation, God makes himself immanently knowable, coming to his people to be known as the God who sees, hears, remembers, and keeps showing up for his people. Instead of being defined by our circumstances, joy is based on the knowledge that we are loved by this God. But it requires a willingness to enter into this knowledge of God — into joy — even when it costs us something.
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Matthew 6: 1-5, 16-18
Barbara Sunofsky. In this passage, Jesus addresses the motivations behind our religious practices. He lifts up a new possibility…that rather than needing to be approved of and seen by others, we have the opportunity to be seen, truly seen, by God. He tells us that if we want the notice of others, then that becomes our reward; and those of us who do so are hypocrites, a term he often used to describe the Pharisees of his day. That false identity is designed to elicit something…usually accolades and self-aggrandizement. We cannot make a mistake here and assign the title “hypocrite” only to others. We, I, am the hypocrite. We are well-intended, but mistaken in our self-glorification and God has so much more for us.
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Matthew 5:21-26
Brandon Cook. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brilliantly upends spiritual maturity as it was understood in his day, by saying “You have heard…But I tell you…” And he teaches that God is most interested in a transformed heart, not just a shiny appearance. In this message, we explore how Jesus invites us to actually let God be with us in our lust and anger and how his entire spirituality is ultimately an invitation to letting God hold us in all of our contradictions.
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Matthew 5:13-20
Steve Thomas. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges both the ways of legalism and "I'm just going to do my own thing". While upholding the purpose of scripture, Jesus brings us back to the essential of relationship: loving God and loving others. In following Jesus model, we are indeed salt and light.
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Matthew 5:1-12
Ryan Longnecker. In the intro to our series 'Sermon on the Mount' we look at one of the most famous passages in Scripture, the Beatitudes. Jesus reminds us of God's promises to care for, defend, and comfort His people while also showing those who experience pain, persecution, and struggle might be closer to the Kingdom than they realize.
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2 Corinthians 8:1-3,7-8,12-15, 9:6-11a
Barbara Sunofsky. What if abundance has nothing to do with how much or how little money we have? Money is a reality in all of our relationships, past, present, and future. We consider how we feel when we have or do not have money, and how we steward its power in our relationships. Giving money away is a spiritual discipline that we practice because of our knowledge of Christ's abundance. As a community, we engage in spiritual formation to make a commitment to give all we readily and easily can, and beyond.
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