Elements City Church Podcast

In the Old Testament, nothing was more central to Israel's way of life than the Land God gave them and the Temple He called them to build, and as with everything in the Old Testament, this all points us to our lives today in Christ. In 1st Corinthians chapter 3 Paul is "echoing" these OT truths and showing how the Church is the fulfillment of the Land Promises and the Temple realities fully experienced! Ultimately in this message, we talk about how important it is that we "Build" with "Quality materials" the Temple of God which is what we are as God's people. How do we make sure we are building on Jesus Christ and build with things like gold instead of straw, that is things that will last to the final Day of Judgement. Blessings!

God is one who longs to bring and deliver His blessing. We see glimpses of this all throughout the Scriptures, but perhaps none more clear than the priestly blessing in Numbers chapter 6. It's a blessing that speaks so much to the character of God. As one's who follow Jesus, we start that journey FROM a posture of: REST not Effort. We're to rest in the favor and blessing of God that He provides and He initiates. Then we're to be a conduit of that blessing to others. We're blessed to BE a blessing!

On August 9th, 2020, we gathered to remember and celebrate the life of Pastor Bryan Lee. This is the memorial service.

There are moments in life that are downright challenging. This is one of those moments. As a church family we're mourning the loss of Pastor Bryan Lee. We're hurting for his family and ours. We gather tonight to remember & honor. We gather to lean into the HOPE Jesus gives, especially in moments like this. We gather to pray, to worship, to cry, to encourage one another and be reminded that we move forward together. We're reminded of the powerful beauty of Jesus captured in the shortest verse in the Bible (John 11:35).

Our world more than ever needs freedom and joy that is found in Jesus our King! Freedom and joy should mark us as the people of God yet we have often succumbed to the culture and our church culture that has tended to shrink God down and cause us to forget what type of Kingdom we have entered and what the culture of the Kingdom of Christ is really all about. Prayer is once again the key and the aspect of prayer called praise must be exuberant. WE were given God's breath so we could give our all and best back to Him in praise!!!

There’s something about confession that is powerful - something that cleanses our soul - and yet it’s something few of us have made a regular practice in our lives. But what if we did this more regularly? The Spirit nudges us toward confession by giving us feelings of conviction and as we respond in repentance, there is a freedom and growing relational depth we experience with God.

We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. There is nothing and nobody more superior than God. And so the calling of those who love God is to ADORE HIS GREATNESS and to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is to those around us. Be a telescope to the world of the infinite greatness of God. Seeing God for who he truly is, results in joyful worship and a compelling, growing adoration.

Do you feel tired, warn down, frustrated and because of this your prayer life has taken a hit and it seems when you feel you need God more He feels further away and it seems its been a while since you last really heard from God?? Often this is because we have stopped thanking and praising God, we have forgotten to minister to the Lord early and often. This message serves as a wake up call, a call to the church to get back to its first love and its highest calling and to doing what is clearly God's will for our lives. Here's to all the ones who are answering this call!!!!

Jesus knew it would be difficult for His followers to continue to pray especially during hard and trying times and so he told them this story of a widow protesting an unjust judge and how she was able to change his mind and how boldly then we ought to protest God to act on our behalf against all forms of oppression. When the "Justice of Jesus" is enacted it comes in a very different way than any human government, judge, or people group can ever bring. The Justice of Jesus is always perfect and full of mercy and this Just Judge and King we must protest if we want to become "overcomers" in an unjust world.

God is a Guiding God. He doesn't leave people on their own, unattended to & not communicated with. If we want to be a people who HEAR from God, we have to learn how to recognize when God is speaking to us & ways in which we can tune in. Prayer is not just me talking with God. God can also talk back. We must cultivate ears to hear. Tonight we lean into 2 predominant ways God speaks: Scripture and Promptings.

As we continue to lean into the Lord's Prayer we see within this blueprint for prayer some truths for us to engage in. We are Active Agents for God and partnered with Him to bring more of His ways activated within our world. We're to have a flow of forgiveness in our lives and we're to pursue a full allegiance to God and His best in life as we live within a world that tries to pull us away from God and his best.

We want us to turn to where Jesus introduces what many refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus sets the backdrop to the relational nature and intimacy of prayer and he gives us a blueprint, if you will, of the core of prayer. This is taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ch. 6. Jesus radically changes the paradigm of how we approach prayer and invites us into making prayer personal and a powerful way to engage with our Heavenly Father.

This question is simple and would seem to need no explanation, like the question why live or why breathe the question why pray is fundamental and essential to life in Christ yet many find it hard to do and make apart of their every days lives. This message is meant to give you a bigger WHY to your prayer life that would increase your desire to pray and pray more passionately! Once your desire for prayer becomes unquenchable all the other questions to prayer and living with purpose become as natural as breathing in and out. Prayerfully listen to this message as we hope it will ground you in the truth of Scripture and why you should pray with faith and joy unspeakable!!

Do ya remember your old gaming systems you played as a kid? They had this little invention that assisted you if it ever froze, got stuck or you wanted a redo - it was the RESET button. Following Peter's story out after his failure moment, we see him returning to his old life of fishing - but Jesus meets him and gives him a RESET moment. It's a moment we all need at times. Thanks to Jesus, it's a moment we're each invited into.

Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days. As we continue our journey in the gospel of John, I want us to peer into a MISTAKE MOMENT of Peter and what we learn about Jesus. Sometimes, just like Peter, we get things right! Sometimes, just like Peter, we most definitely get things wrong. What Peter will come to discover is God’s amazing truth: You can’t “work your way” into God’s grace and you can't “behave your way” out of it. Jesus shows us that God is a God of CORRECTION, not CONDEMNATION.

Let's look into a prayer of Jesus. It’s known as the great Priestly Prayer of Jesus in the gospel of John, chapter 17. There's so much that comes from how Jesus prays. Read it. Lean into it. Meet His heart for you in it. He knew all that would occur once the church began to move – so he prayed for you, for me, for us. And He still does...

 When it comes to life and especially seasons like this that we're navigating, we all find ourselves asking WHY? That question has been around a long time and Jesus doesn't ignore the struggles or the ache of the heart we all feel at times. In fact, he directly tells us the truth about the hardships of life. He discusses the truth and he also delivers an incredible promise in the gospel of John (John 16:33). His promise that we can find peace in him no matter the hardship and we don't have to ever lose heart.

Who is the Holy Spirit, what He like, what does He desire, and what’s His ultimate purpose and why He’s the best friend and greatest gift you can ever have? In this short message we were only able to touch upon the unfathomable riches we have in Christ through the Spirit but we hope you listen and then seek a greater relationship with the Holy Spirit for He is your only way to intimately know Jesus and the Father. He is eternal life and the rivers of living waters your longing for!!!

Jesus is NOT someone we put our faith in – in one moment of time; then we’ve got our ticket to heaven and we just set it and forget it. He’s the ONE we’re to repeatedly anchor too, constantly stay connected to, endlessly tether our lives to; this relationship with Jesus is to be something we REMAIN in continually.

As we celebrate Easter, we remember that first morning when Jesus arose! It changed everything - for everyday moving forward! An eternal HOPE dawned that day that still reaches out to us in our day. How can we lay hold of it? How can we have it hold us? Through trusting in Jesus as The Way, The Truth and The Life. May God's grace refresh your heart today friends as we worship and adore our Risen Savior!