Imago Dei Community Sermons

Erik Knox (who started the church, The Well, here in Portland) is planting a church in Los Angeles named Sojourn Gospel Community. His vision for his church is to be a tool of cultural renewal for the Kingdom of God in Los Angeles. But what is cultural renewal? Why not just focus on saving souls…as most churches seem to do? The problem is this; to those outside of the kingdom of God (non-believers) speaking in terms of merely “saving souls” sounds like some type of take over that they want nothing to do with. It also has the propensity to separate spirituality from real life. There is a more holistic approach, which certainly includes a mission to save souls, but encompasses so much more. God has not called us to live duplicitous, compartmentalized lives. Eternity includes the physical as well as the spiritual. We are to use all that we have (including our physical possessions, jobs, etc) for the glory of God. Why? Because culture is good! We will not leave the material world in eternity. The first thing God

When one thinks about a section of Scripture that deals with love, 1 Corinthians 13 always comes to mind. But this short section of Romans also tackles the grandiose topic of love. According to Paul, we owe a debt of love to each other. Most debts, in fact all debts except for this one, sap us of our time and energy as we try to figure out how to repay them. The debt of love, conversely, frees us up and sets our heart loose. It allows the law to be fulfilled in us. If we aim at the law, we will end up with legalism. If we aim at love, we will get the law thrown in. God, grant us the desire to aim at love. To aim at Eternity. To aim at Christ! Romans 13:8 - 14

In our culture, we are taught to flee from situations where we are required to submit or subject ourselves to others. But it is Gods message to us through Pauls letter to the Romans that teaches us we are all subject to authority. No one, save God the Father, is free from submission to someone. Jesus submits to the Father. We submit to Jesus. And, in an earthly sense, we all submit to someone; our earthly parents, our spouse, our government. Like it or not, we are all subjects. But Paul explains that this is not a bad thing. In fact, it is by design. Yet due to our bent-ness to sin, we kick and fight against submission with all we have got. Part of our transformation (Romans 12:1-2) is responding to Gods incredible mercy by submitting and respecting those placed in authority over us. It is Gods will to govern the world through human civil authority. Our submission to that authority is more than obeying laws. It is also respecting the leaders in play. This applies to our temporal state of this world, and the e

In this passage of Ephesians, Paul states that God has predestined us. He is not trying to fuel some theological debate, but is rather using this concept pastorally as he encourages Christ followers that their destiny is taken care of. This should give us huge amounts of hope and peace. Our destination has been determined by God. In fact it is a destination we are unable to determine on our own. It is a God sized assignment, saving us and sanctifying us. God has taken care of all the big stuff in our lives, the stuff that really matters. It is important to realize this because so many of us try, to the point of exhaustion, to control and determine such things for ourselves and others. God does invite us into the process. He invites us to pay attention to and re-imagine our lives. Our destiny doesn’t need to be created, it’s already been taken care of. Simply walk humbly in a manner worthy to the calling you have received. Ephesians 1:1 - 14

In response to God’s mercy, we should long to return to him lives of worship. This requires a radical transformation of us. This section of Romans speaks to us of how love should shape us into living sacrifices. Love is often spoken of in very intangible terms. What is so interesting about this passage is that Paul puts all types of actions into the definition of love. These are not things we can muster up from within ourselves. These things are marks of a love coming from another place. If we are becoming a radical community in transformation, being shaped by the cross, love will win…despite any trials. Romans 12:9 - 21

God has pursued us into salvation, but he has also changed us deeply. If we are indeed a new humanity, no longer slaves to sin, how then shall we live? The last few chapters of Romans give us a vision of how we are to live in light of God’s mercy. The fact is, once we realize how God has pursued us in love we should desire to bring it all back to him in love. The problem here is that at the root of our sin lies a bent-ness to being consumed with self. We have deified ourselves to the point where our needs, wants, and feelings are the most important things in our lives. As a part of our transformation (metamorphosis) we should rather begin shifting towards a humble participation with our lives in God’s will. One huge way we can begin this is to understand and employ our gifting for the sake of others. Even in this seemingly spiritual activity, the temptation remains to find our gifting, and use it for our benefit. But this text clearly teaches that we are to use our gifts in sober judgment, in faith, and for o

God shows Himself as merciful over and over again throughout the book of Romans. In chapter 12 there is clear instruction for what we can do in response to the mercy we have received. God wants our whole person as a living and holy sacrifice and for us to live our whole lives as worship unto him through our gifts, loving and acting this out in the world. It is not about programmatic responses that are separate from the other parts of our lives. We offer our whole person and allow ourselves to be transformed into these kinds of people who begin to have a more real understanding of God’s will as a matter of our hearts’ posture before Him and not a matter of God’s best possible plan for my individual life. As we do make this living sacrifice, we are transformed and change begins to take place in a world where we have the hope that all things are being made new. Romans 12:1-2

Craig Gross, one of the founders of the XXX Church, tells his story about building this website and church which has become, what they refer to as the #1 Christian Porn site. The story revolves around two men responding to God calling them to speak the Truth in love to people from all walks of life who are struggling with pornography. The issue of looking at pornography is merely an example of a sin keeping us from living an abundant life that we were created to live. Looking at pornography consistently, or a struggle with any sin outside of the community we were created for shows a life dominated by sin, chasing a thing that is not real and attempting to quench a thirst that will not ever be fulfilled. Romans 7:18 - 24

It is challenging to accept undeserved grace. This is partly because we, as humans, are not very good at receiving. We want to earn what we get. And what we have, we want to boast about. Part of Israel’s sin against God was their arrogance. Israel believed they earned their salvation. They believed they were saved to exclusion of other nations, and because of their ethnicity. The sin of pride runs deep in humanity. We are not different than the Israelites. Do you think you are saved because of what you know? Because of whom you know? As soon as our salvation is based on anything other than God’s gift, we leave the grace of God. An indication that we are in this place is when we have no desire to share this amazing gift with others. That is, our heart no longer breaks for those people without God's saving grace. Through the Israelites sin of pride, God chose to draw Gentiles to Himself, and arouse envy among Israel. What would it look like for you to love God so passionately that it arouses envy

God uses our stories to bring about Himself being exalted among the nations. We acknowledge as a church body that we do not have a full view of what is happening in other parts of the world and we seek to take a peer role in standing with others who are spreading the Gospel. Rick interviews Victor Cruz who is working in Chiapas, Mexico.

All humanity is under that wrath of God, yet in grace God has pursued us through Christ. This salvation comes through the Jews, as Christ was Jewish. This raises many questions about the state of Israel, and God's plan for her. Did God's plan fail? In Romans 9 Paul redefines God's plan by saying that not all of Israel is truly Israel. The true Israel includes all the children of the promise. Paul dispels the myth that that Israel is merely an ethnicity. For even Jews themselves to not consider Ishmael or Esau to be of Israel, though they certainly have the correct bloodlines. The same is true for us today as believers. We have nothing granting us salvation other than faith. Our heritage does not save us. This passage should be a warning to us not to allow our hearts to harden. We all need to humble ourselves before God, grateful that He has chosen to graft us in to his plan for salvation. We are not in some type of contract with God, but rather a dynamic, relational covenant. Romans 9:6 - 29

Genesis 2:6

What does it look like to trust God in the face of struggle and suffering? Pastor Bill Clem addresses Matthew 6:25-34 with a stand-alone message.