Gracelife Sarasota

You ever been invited to a party or event so special to the host, you felt honored just being included on the guest list? The occasion is special, the venue is beautiful, the food will be great, the people attending are precious to you. Maybe it’s a wedding celebration for a close friend or family, a celebration of a milestone, or the gift of tickets for the Superbowl of your childhood team in our home stadium, to see your fav player of all time Tom Brady win another ring. You just know it’s gonna be a great day, a moment in life where treasured memories are made, a day to anticipate. It’s so exciting, so important, you want to be ready so you can enjoy it to its fullest, so even months away you prepare. But your preparation isn’t just about you, its also a way to honor the person who loved you enough to invite you! You want them to know you know you are honored by the invite; you wouldn’t miss it! You make sure you’re ready! You don’t wait till 24 hours before

Can you think of moments in recent history where it seemed like the world system was on the verge of collapse? Can you relate personally to the anxiety of those events or at least empathize with those directly impacted? 9-11 when the WTC towers collapsed, people thought how can we recover from that? But we did. The GFC in 2008, the global banking system was on the verge of collapse. It was bailed out & came back. Just a few years ago we had a global crisis because of Covid-19 and all the lockdowns. In Turkey this week, an earthquake killed 18,000 so far. Turkey will rebuild. But the world won’t rebuild from Revelation 18. As with these and all systemic catastrophes in world history, somehow humanity was able to pick up pieces, move on. Is it possible one day the world system will face a global crisis so broad & destructive it will never recover or rebuild? If it is possible, would that be a good day or a bad day? Is it a frightening thought or a comforting one? Today’s passage is a prophecy abou

As a Jesus follower, do you ever face conflicting voices, calling you in two different directions? One voice invites you to come out of the world, & the other urges you to stay comfortable, within the world’s system. I am not talking about the struggle between righteousness & wickedness. Its more subtle than that. Which would you rather be? One who grapples with the tug-of-war between Jesus and the world every day? Or someone who can live in this world without any kind of tension between following Jesus and loving this world? Some never hear the call to come out of the world. Their whole life devoted to getting the most they can out of it. Others hear some echoes of a call to come out of the world. They do for a while, but always seem to run back. True followers of Jesus will always be caught in this daily fight. That tension is exhausting, but can also be a comfort. It’s a struggle we are called to embrace, and be prepared to face and fight every day. This struggle is some of the best evidence

Couldn't join us for worship this week? Life happens! Luckily you can catch the latest sermon or go back and check out any of our past sermons on our weekly GraceLife Sarasota podcast.

Some of you may not know this about me, but sometimes…I can be a little bit….dramatic, and hyperbolic. Not too long ago, Laura and I were driving to meet some friends and 41 was a parking lot. As bad as I ever remember. I huffed, shook my head, and verbally expressed my frustration w/the other drivers who don’t drive as good as me. I said to Laura… “We are gonna miss dinner. We’re never gonna get off this road, we’re gonna be stuck here forever.” She looked at me with that wife look. She says “Joe, that's a little bit dramatic, don’t you think?” But do you know the feeling? Have you ever been in a miserable situation that felt like it had no end? We all have felt that sometimes it was annoying, other times it's real suffering that seems to have no end in sight. Compared to the tribulation John’s readers were living through, I can tell you it makes our stuff look different. There’s no doubt the tribulation they suffered

I want to start off with a small disclaimer, there is some descriptive language here today. The last 2 weeks we learned there’s a diff between struggling with sin & being fully committed to wickedness. We live in a fallen world; many people suffer from choices they regret, choices many are forced into. God’s purpose for this passage isn’t to shame or condemn people who’ve been sucked into bad situations. This passage's descriptive language is a metaphor for why evil has such seductive power. It pulls back the curtain on that seductive power so followers of Jesus can know what’s really going on in the world. Don’t you ever marvel at this world constantly fighting against your desire to follow Jesus faithfully? Does it seem like this world never tries to make it easy, to help you stay faithful when all it does is make it harder? Doesn’t it seem like the world constantly beckons us to fall in love with life on this earth more than we love the savior? The world sys

What do you think of when someone mentions “Armageddon”? Is it an ominous, unsettling reaction at first listen? For most people, Armageddon has been assigned a flawed connotative meaning, much like they have with Apocalypse. In our very 1st message, we learned Apocalypse means revealing, not a metaphor for the end of the world. Similarly, most people use Armageddon as a metaphor for a cataclysmic ominous clash between 2 opposing rivals. In sports when 2 great teams are about to face off in a big game, people say, “Man that is going to be Armageddon”. The world uses the term geopolitically to describe a potential massive military conflict between powerful nations. A future global nuclear war, or massive military conflict that threatens global peace or economic prosperity. A war with an outcome in the balance, a conflict that could go either way. We hope when it happened good guys win. As we learned with the word Apocalypse, the world doesn’t understand what Armageddon really

Do you ever get frustrated with how the world seems so stubbornly commitment to wickedness & evil? Does it ever seem like the world in general takes pleasure in its relentless rejection of God, and the Gospel? Even if they don’t reject God, they are relentlessly committed to redefining Him in their terms? One example is God’s judgement. Most of the world, even some Christians, want to cancel the idea of the wrath of God. How could God be a God of love and judge people? Why does Evil seem like an uncontrollable weed popping up everywhere, constantly needing to be rooted out? There is a reason for this. The wicked aren’t just wicked because of sins they commit. Aren’t the righteous sinners too? The difference between the righteous & the wicked isn’t sinlessness; it's a full, devoted, passionate commitment to evil. That’s what wickedness is, a relentless commitment to what is untrue, what is evil. That’s what we see in this passage.

Why are we going through Revelation? What are we hoping to learn when we take all this time to study it closely? Should we treat it as sort of a manual for end times things to watch for to know if Jesus’ return is close? How many predictions, from well-meaning people, about the return of Jesus, based on Revelation have been right? True, Revelation reveals beautiful, inspiring truth about the return of Jesus. But it’s purpose isn’t to help us predict it. In fact, Jesus warned about the folly of trying to predict His return. He said no one except the Father knows. So, if predicting when Jesus will return shouldn’t be our motivation to study Revelation, what should be? In chapter 1, the Spirit revealed those who read it will be blessed. The word means encouraged, inspired to endure and press on. Revelation should be seen as a powerful, inspirational guide, filling in the gaps of what we are waiting & hoping for. Revelation should inspire us to endure this fallen world. Paul says creat

Isn’t Christmas just the coziest of all the holidays. Its cozier than thanksgiving, July 4, Labor Day, New Year’s. What makes your Christmas cozy? How many of you wear matching pajamas? How many of you drink egg nog? How many of you think egg nog ruins Christmas? How many of you have the cozy ugly Christmas sweaters? Do you put one of those YouTube Yule log videos on constant loop on the TV? What is it about Christmas decorations? They make us feel cozy too, right? The tree, the lights, tinsel, the wreaths. No other holiday has its own music! Have you ever heard any Labor Day Carols! What is your favorite Christmas music? Raise your hands: Jazz? Disco? top 40? Rock-n-Roll? Country? What about Christmas rap? Is that your favorite? We like the gifts and what they say about who we give them to, and who gives them to us, it says someone is special. These are some of the reasons Christmas is the most merry, warm, cozy, blingy, musical, worshipful Holiday of them all. Of course, as followers of Jesus

Starting today, the next several weeks are going to be some of the toughest parts of Revelation to read. They are filled with ominous, graphic, & violent symbolism describing the wrath & judgement of God against evil. I believe the purpose of these descriptions of God’s judgment are to encourage believers, not scare unbelievers. I don’t believe John’s motivation was to preach hell fire & damnation, but to say, “Hang in there, Our Jesus is coming!” For some, God may use these sermons to call you, mark you as one of His own. He may do that, and I welcome it. But for the next several weeks, I won’t be trying to “Scare people into heaven”. I want to encourage & comfort you.

In the Great Commission Jesus commanded His church to go into all the world, preaching the Gospel He taught us. That Gospel is a precious message of grace & mercy, but it’s also a warning of judgment for those who reject it. God’s people have always battled temptation to soften the Gospel’s warnings of judgement, just focusing on mercy. The church is under constant pressure to truncate the Gospel, just make it about grace & mercy. That’s because the world doesn’t want to hear what the Gospel says are the consequences for those who reject it. The world will tolerate our proclamation of God’s mercy, but it hates any proclamation about God’s wrath. “I thought God is a God of love? We are all God’s children! I don’t want anything to do with that kind of God” But we can’t be silent about judgement! It’s what convinces us we need the grace & mercy, we love so much! Today’s passage gives us insight into how followers of

Have you ever heard the phrase “I have good news, and bad news, which do you want first?” Which one do you usually want to hear first? For me, I always say “give me the bad news”. I want to get it out of the way to process it emotionally, physically, and spiritually then hear something hopeful. That’s how chapter 13 & 14 lays out. Its good news and bad news, and John gave his readers the bad news first. Chapter13, revealed how Satan wages war on this earth against the woman’s offspring, God’s people, the church. He weaponizes every government, religion, philosophy, and economic system throughout this tribulation age we live in. In the grand scheme, no earthly government, philosophy, or religion is worthy of our hope, obsession, or our primary allegiance. That’s why chapter 13 was bad news. It reveals that no matter your political preference, its all 666, it's all part of the beast. I confessed a few weeks ago I had too much hope & obsession w/politics, &

Reading Revelation the wrong way makes it a horror movie. Reading it the right way makes it an encouraging blessing. Bad interpretation of today’s passage is one reason people see Revelation as scary, ominous, & intimidating. It contains 2 of the most talked about symbols in Revelation, the mark of the beast and the number of the beast. From vaccines to computer chips to bar codes and social security cards fear of 666 can randomly show up in any setting. Both have been misinterpreted so often, by so many, it would be comical, if it weren’t so dangerously misleading. So why does John put these images in Revelation? How is this “blessed is everyone who reads this”? What if I could show you as followers of Jesus, whenever we see that number pop up it should bless us? What if I John wanted his readers to reflect on 666 more often? What would you think?

It’s a bit of a turn of providence that this passage comes the Sunday after election day, though I didn’t plan it. Also, many of you know I don’t like talking politics during sermons ever, but Revelation sort of demands it. It's full of encouragements and warnings about being too invested in this world, it's treasures, it's powers, it's system. Let me start today with some vulnerability about my personal political journey over the last decade. As recently as 8 years, I was too distracted by American politics. My obsession with our government could have become an idol. I had allowed my politics, who I voted for & policies I wanted to get conflated with my view of Kingdom work. Through others, God began to show me how political obsession was compromising my Kingdom loyalty. Passion & energy for the Great Commission was being sucked away by passion & energy for elections & headlines. I confused patriotism with Godliness. I made politics a frontline spiritual battle instead of the Great Commi

Let’s set a visual scene here for you with a couple pics. This what Israeli wilderness looks like. Over 20 years ago, Laura and I were given with a trip to Israel. It was such a formative 14 days. One night, our guide arranged a wilderness camping experience in Bedouin tents, that looked just like this. Our tents were very comfortable. Our Bedouin hosts provided everything we needed, food, water, electricity. I remember our Bedouin hosts warned about 25 of us, “Don’t wander off in the wilderness alone, stay with the camp. There are dangerous animals that come out at night in the wilderness, along with deadly scorpions & snakes. At night, stay in your tents. You have everything you need until the morning when we come get you." I remember one 18-year-old kid didn’t stay in his tent, we heard a shriek right outside, our hosts sprinted to his aide. They killed this huge scorpion, apparently the deadliest species in Israel. When we heard, all 25 of us moved our cots into a 4 square foo

Have you ever been embarrassed by someone making a loud, public accusation against you? Have you ever made a mistake and had someone who seemed to enjoy telling everyone about it? Has someone secretly, anonymously gone behind your back to make an accusation? That’s never fun is it? In my 1st full time job, I had a person like that, who seemed constantly joyful over carrying a torch for accusing me. I remember how they came after me aggressively, publicly, full of hypocritical self-righteousness, the reveled in it. I also remember when a mentor, in a very public meeting becoming my advocate. I still remember his words. “Joe came to me immediately when he realized his mistake, asked for forgiveness, & my help resolving it.” “We began the process weeks ago. Joe has done everything asked of him. The matter has been fully resolved." “Is there anything else?” My accuser kept going back. “We aren’t discussing that anymore, anything else?” I felt humbled

So far, Revelation is full of symbolism around the suffering of God’s people in this period we’re in called the tribulation. Are you ever troubled or perplexed by the terrible things throughout human history, and even today? Do you get weary of a seemingly relentless struggle against evil? War, genocide, violence, famine, cultural decline? What about personally? Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, this struggle just keeps coming in waves? Do the realities of this existential battle with evil ever leave you discouraged, overwhelmed, depressed? Do you ever feel like you’re wandering in the wilderness, hoping for a sign, some sort of definitive direction? No doubt our struggle with evil is real. Its so bad sometimes Christians struggle with victimhood. That’s tribulation! Its especially difficult if we don’t understand why evil & the suffering it causes seems so loud, so strong, so ubiquitous. As followers of Jesus, it’s important to zoom out of the day to day

In this Revelation series, I’ve made many references to government while not advocating for one political side or the other. It's clear one of the themes in Revelation is don’t put your hope in earthly government....that won’t end well. For Christians in America, I think that misplaced hope is more tempting & prevalent than Christians in other countries. America is an amazing country and I’m a proud American but even our nation is not worthy of our hope. As great as America is, we are flawed and depraved no matter who’s in power. I won’t go into the list. Can a nation ever be “righteous”? Should churches make transforming government part of our core mission? Israel had a direct, special, tangible relationship with God, manifested in so many ways, they couldn’t even do it! Of course, you can love your country, be patriotic, active politically, but the Kingdom of our God is our only true hope. Today’s passage, the 7th trumpet, gives us import

We’ve preached through Genesis (twice), Philippians, 2 Cor, Psalm 119, 1,2, & 3 John. The Life of Joseph, Mark, Jonah, 1 & 2 Peter, and now we are slowly working our way through Revelation, within half a year, w/likely 20 more sermons to go. Recently someone new to our church asked me why we do such long series at GraceLife, months to months??? 90 minutes later (JK), I defined one of our core values, Biblical, meaning we let the bible dictate what I preach not the opposite. Being Biblical has many legitimate perspectives, but for us at GraceLife, it's one of our greatest passions, if not # 1. With so many new people coming, I thought it important to take a week to explain how we teach God’s Word at GL. This sermon will either get you all fired up or bore you to tears, but it's critical to understand this GL distinctive.