Church At The Cross

Matthew 2:1-18 “Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. - David Foster W

Sermon Text: Luke 1:5-25, 55-66  God uses unlikely but available people to bring about his purposes.   God’s plans always involve a time of waiting.   All our lives are to bear witness to Jesus.    

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-12 Identity of the Disciples Mission of the Disciples The Cost and Motivation of Discipleship

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-12. “Rather than the good life being defined in predominantly moral terms (i.e., seeking virtue, shunning vice, and conforming to a divinely given “way”), now the good life is often defined by a pursuit of a feeling, which is won by the accumulation of all the things you would find if one were to weld together ideal versions of a job résumé, dating profile, and Christmas list. By achieving success, wealth, power, and the right body type, we’ve allowed a modern combination of meritocracy and consumerism to cast an imaginative and alluring vision of ‘happily ever after.” Joshua Chatraw, Telling a Better Story. Persecution is inevitable for followers of Jesus.  Our Response to Persecution is non-retaliatory.  How real is the Kingdom of Heaven to you?  How real is Jesus’ promised reward to you?

This is the ninth message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” Pastor JR shares with us what being a real peacemaker is. Sermon Text: Matthew 5:10-12 The Certainty of Persecution The Cause of Persecution  The Forms of Persecution  The Response to Persecution  

This is the eighth message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” Pastor JR shares with us what being a real peacemaker is.   Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-9Sermon Notes:  God is a Peace-Making God God’s children are peacemaking people Rest in the Peace you have with God Don’t Settle for Counterfeit Peace Prepare to have your attempts at peace rejected Spread Peace by Spreading the Gospel  

Matthew 5:8 What is it? For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23) Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. (Psalm 24:3-4) “Their whole life, public and private, is transparent before God and men. Their very heart—including their thoughts and motives—is pure, unmixed without anything devious, ulterior, or base. Hypocrisy and deceit are abhorrent to them; they are without guile” - John Stott “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”– Soren Kierkegaard What's the Motivation for it? “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as

This is the sixth message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” Pastor JR shares with us what mercy is, how do we learn it, and what is the promise.  Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-7 Sermon Notes:  What Is Mercy? How Do We Learn Mercy?   “Like nothing else could ever do, the gospel instills in me a heart for the downcast, the poverty-stricken, and those in need of physical mercies, especially when such persons are of the household of faith. When I see persons who are materially poor, I instantly feel a kinship with them, for they are physically what I was spiritually when my heart was closed to Christ. Perhaps some of them are in their condition because of sin, but so was I. Perhaps they are unkind when I try to help them; but I, too, have been spiteful to God when He has sought to help me. Perhaps they are thankless and even abuse the kindness I show them, but how many times have I been thankless and used what God has given me to serve selfish ends? The gospel reminds me daily of t

This is the fifth message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” Pastor JR shares with us how to pursue righteousness. Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-6 Sermon Notes:  Legal Righteousness Moral Righteousness - You evaluate everything in your life by how it affects your pursuit of righteousness - You embrace everything that promotes righteousness Social Righteousness You embrace everything that promotes righteousness  You will work to alleviate the sufferings of others even at personal cost to yourself.  

This is the fourth message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” JR shares with us how meekness is the key to the Kingdom of God, why we should desire meekness, and how to cultivate it.  Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-5.  Keep your eyes on the eternal Keep your eyes on Jesus 

This is the third message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.”  Sermon Text: Matthew 5:4 + Those who mourn over the sin and brokenness in them.  + Those who mourn over the sin and brokenness around them.  + Those who mourn over the sin and brokenness inflicted on them.    + He comforts us with Pardon.  “Suppose for a moment that in a flash of insight you discovered that all your motives for ministry were essentially egocentric, or suppose that last night you got drunk and committed adultery, or suppose that you failed to respond to a cry for help and the person committed suicide. What would you do? Would guilt and self-condemnation, and self-hatred consume you, or would you jump into the water and swim a hundred yards at breakneck speed toward Jesus? Haunted by feelings of unworthiness, would you allow the darkness to overcome you or would you let Jesus be who He is - a Savior of boundless compassion and infinite patience, a Lover who keeps no score of our wrongs?” Brennan Mann

  This is the second message in our series, “The Beatitudes: Jesus’ Invitation To The Good Life.” This sermon covers what the Kingdom of God looks like and why being poor in spirit is foundational to living in his kingdom.   If you feel like you are not enough for Jesus, you are ready for Jesus  You never graduate from poverty of spirit The poor in spirit never feel superior to anyone 

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:1-12. “At length they gradually deviated into a taste for those luxuries which stimulate to vice; porticos, and baths, and the elegancies of the table; and this, from their inexperience, they termed politeness, whilst, in reality, it constituted a part of their slavery.” ― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania.  “Jesus did not die at the hands of muggers, rapists, or thugs. He fell into the well-scrubbed hands of deeply religious people, society’s most respected members.” - Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child   Who he is How he lived Why he died Where He is  What He knows   Tortured Souls  Cheated Souls Diseased souls   “I find, then, a fourth case, where the happy life exists,—when that which is man’s chief good is both loved and possessed. For what do we call enjoyment but having at hand the objects of love? And no one can be happy who does not enjoy what is man’s chief good, nor is there any one who enjoys this who is not happy.” St. Augustine.

Jude 17-21 Sermon Notes: “The Ring of Sauron is only one of the various mythical treatments of the placing of one’s life, or power, in some external object, which is thus exposed to capture or destruction with disastrous results to oneself.” J.R.R. Tolkien Keep yourselves in the Love of God Building Yourselves up in your most holy faith Praying in the Holy Spirit Waiting for the Mercy of Jesus CHALLENGE 5.4.3.2.1 5 times a week in the Scripture and Prayer 4 times a month in corporate worship 3 times a month in a discipleship group 2 times a month in your Life Group 1 time a month in corporate prayer (Prayer and Songs)

Ephesians 3:14-19   Sermon Notes: Paul’s (and Scripture’s) great concern is our interior life.     "The sad reality is that most of us will not go forward until the pain of staying where we are in unbearable." Pete Scazzero Notes:  In Scripture In silence and solitude In Community    CHALLENGE:  5 times a week in the word and prayer 4 times a month in corporate worship 3 times a month in your life group 1 time a month in corporate prayer

Renewed Passion for Discipleship This is the last message in our sermon series, "Songs of Renewal." Minister to Young Adults and Alpha Director, Casey Schutza, challenges us to make faithful disciples in every generation. Psalm 78 + What is our greatest temptation?  + What is our greatest gift?  + What hope do we have for the future?  

This message is the tenth message in our sermon series, "Songs of Renewal." Minister to Young Adults and Alpha Director, Casey Schutza, encourages us to renew our vision of Jesus.  Psalm 2 + Inditement of the King + Identity of the King + Invitation of the King