Elements City Church Podcast

Not only has faith in Jesus freed us from condemnation. The EMPOWERED life is God’s Spirit now living within us. Influencing and helping us to become more and more what we’re intended, rescued and created to be…and become.

What some have called the greatest chapter in the Bible (Romans chapter 8) begins with a declarative bang - a shout of relief for those who, in faith, are now in Christ. We are rescued and released from condemnation and no longer face the charges deserved. God has freed us, for He is FOR us through Christ...and this changes everything.

Baptism is an important step in the journey of every follower of Jesus. It is a moment the Believer is commissioned publicly as a disciple of Christ to go and make more followers of Jesus. Jesus set the example for us in this regard, but the baptism of Jesus holds far more weight than many Christians realize — something seen as we examine the narrative of Scripture.

Easter invites us to keep seeking Jesus - he is alive and loves to be found…he still loves to seek and save the lost - those looking for truth and hope.

As we enter into Holy Week we face again the reality of the battle we’re in. The enemy wants to sideline us by reminding us of our sin and our brokenness. The devil will try to grab a seat at your table, to influence you, but you can resist giving him a seat. God has a table prepared for just you and Him. Jesus has secured our victory so we can remind ourselves of our new identity in Him and WHO is really with us and for us.

Have you ever been in a tug-a-war? Think back to P.E. class in middle school? Remember. Now, do you ever feel a similar tension in your life? Like you’re in a tug-a-war in your attempt to follow after Jesus in the midst of the culture and world in which you live? We must recognize the battle we’re in and RESIST the lies with truth and continue to lean into the practices of Jesus. We must live out 1 Peter 5:8-9.

The final practice to help us live unhurried lives is Sabbath. There’s a reason Sabbath is one of God’s Ten Commandments for us to observe. Regularly practicing Sabbath helps us resist the cultural pull to busyness, while creating margin for us to engage in spiritual formation. Sabbath, ultimately, is one of the best paths to becoming more like Jesus and growing as a disciple of Jesus.

We do these practices like (slowing, simplicity, silence, solitude, sabbath and more) in order to grow the fruit of the Spirit within us and cultivate compassion like Christ within our hearts. We don’t want to grow old and grumpy, as followers of Jesus we must grow our compassion like his! Tonight we look at 4 practices we can do to help grow our compassion.

We live in the culture of busy, of noise, of many voices and distractions - in the land of constant connection and our A.D.D. culture that swirls nonstop around us. And yet, the life rhythms of Jesus invite us to find more of our identity and purpose in him through the practices we see him engage in: solitude and silence. They aren’t for the faint of heart - but they will greatly reshape the heart of a disciple within you.

Our lives are cluttered — so much so that we may have unintentionally crowded Jesus out of our daily lives! By embracing a lifestyle of simplicity, that is, removing anything from our lives that prevents us from pursuing the things we most value, we can create space in our lives and in our hearts for a deeper relationship with Jesus, and a better ability to see and meet the needs of others.

Following Jesus as an act of resistance to our cultural push toward hurry and hustle. We’re invited to live more into the pace of slowly following our Savior. Most of my greatest mistakes tend to come when I’m in a hurry. We’re invited into living more and more like Jesus. Adopting his rhythms and practices. As you study his life, we see that Jesus was busy, but never hurried. As His followers, we're called to walk in the way of love and one simply can not love in a hurry. Within a hurried culture - the practice of slowing helps us recenter ourselves in order to grow our connection with the Lord and to love others well.

Thank you to all who served folks somehow and in some way this Serve Weekend! I love how our church rolls up its sleeves and serves. With the Super Duper Big Game this weekend, we took a break from our normal in-person Sunday night worship services and instead took a time-out to recap our vision via an online service. Lyle and Jack unpack our vision more - with the help of a hot wings challenge...things got spicy! Check it out

If we say we follow Jesus, we have to follow the way of Jesus. From looking at the life of Jesus and the Scripture, we can see that the Jesus 'way' is to gather in order to scatter to reach people not connected to God. We are to be Jesus outside the walls of this church. Be the church that Jesus sends and that takes the love of Jesus to others.

As we pursue our vision we want to cultivate the culture of our church to focus on creating hearts that REACH, EQUIP and SEND. These values will be the flavor of how we live out the great commission and great commandment Jesus gave the church. We also want to grow our generosity in order to live into our dream for the future we believe the Lord is guiding us toward. It will take you, me and us together!

Cultivation is something we all have done, can do. But it’s also something we know takes time and effort. At the heart of cultivation is: intentionality. Friends: we want to encourage us - help us grow in cultivating our relationship with God and our relationships with others with the love of Christ.

As a church, we believe we are commissioned by the Gospel to make disciples. What is the Gospel? Why is it good news? And what role does discipleship play in all of this? Hear how truly experiencing the Gospel and the presence of God positions us to invite others to join us in experiencing the same. This is the heartbeat behind our call to not only be disciples ourselves, but to make disciples as well.

We want to live in such a way that we earn the right to invite people closer to Jesus and into next steps with Him. We want to wake up and walk through our days, continually on the look out for how we can extend an invite to folks versus keeping folks at arms length, extinguishing them and writing them off. We don’t follow ‘cancel culture’, instead, we build a grace filled one that champions people so they know God is for them and available. We invite. = This is Us.

The new year is here, so we’re kicking it off with some worship and prayer as we launch into 2023. Let’s pause, reflect and seek the Lord’s best for ourselves and our church in this new year.

Merry Christmas friends! Today as you gather with folks - we pray that you enjoy the conversations and connections. We invite you to hit pause somewhere in your day to remember once again, the reason for the season. Worship along with us from your home and listen again to the Christmas story from Luke 2 and a few thoughts from Pastor Jack. *after the devotional: pull up the David Crowder Christmas album (track 9) “Your Praise Goes On” and as a family take a moment to let your praise join in…

In Matthew chapter 1 we notice a character of the original nativity - his presence is there, though silent throughout the Scriptures - but it’s the message conveyed to him that helps us see something spectacular about God and all he wants us to know through Christmas! God is FOR us. God is WITH us.