The Well: Sermon Audio

The Bible. Almost all of us have at least one. But do we really know what we have? The words of God. The Bible is the source of direction and authority from God for life and for living, but there are people who disagree and believe there are other sources of truth and/or the Bible is untrue. The first century Christians were dealing with the same issue, and as Peter encourages them in a hostile culture toward the truth of God’s Word, we can find encouragement too. [Video File] [Audio File]

After spending the first 11 verses of this letter explaining the beauty and power of the gospel to save us, sustain us and sanctify us, Peter takes the time to explain why he's been so diligent to remind us of these promises over and over again. As he was an eyewitness of the full manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ, we can have 100 percent certainty that the promises we've been given in His Word concerning Christ and His kingdom are true. With that certainty in mind, we'll explore what the implications are of holding fast and persevering in those promises all the way to the end – until Christ returns or calls us home. [Video File] [Audio File]

Peter calls his audience to actively participate in their salvation and sanctification in response to what God has already done. He is speaking to believers who have forgotten God has set them free from their old life. They have forgotten the purification from their sins, and so they are shortsighted, living for the now, distracted by the world, and they don’t fully understand the gospel. They are believers who will get to the destination eventually, but what joy are they going to miss along the way? God has not called us to Himself that we would live an unfruitful and useless Christian life. He has called us to partner with Him in what He wants to do in us, and joy comes when we are obedient to align ourselves with Him. [Video File] [Audio File]

With only months, if not weeks, before his impending execution under the emperor Nero, the Apostle Peter writes for a second and final time to Christians scattered all over Asia Minor. Whereas in Peter's first letter he sought to encourage these believers concerning the grace Christ has provided them to stand under suffering and persecution, in this second letter Peter writes to encourage them concerning the faith Christ has provided them to continue long after he and the other apostles are gone. In this message, we'll learn specifically how the same God who called us to this faith is the same God who generously supplies all we need to live it out. [Video File] [Audio File]

Some have asked, “How can a loving God allow suffering?” What if the answer is, “Because He is a loving God”? As Peter wraps up this letter, he reminds his readers of the true grace of God. True grace is not the absence of suffering. As odd as it may seem, true grace includes the presence of suffering. Our loving God’s goal for us is not our comfort. He loves us too much. His goal is to perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish us, and that can only come through suffering times. How can a loving God allow suffering? Because He is a loving God! [Video File] [Audio File]

The church was never meant to be a hierarchy. The beauty of the church is that it is led by Jesus Christ, driven by the Holy Spirit and shepherded by godly servant leaders, also known as elders. That’s the structure of the church, by God’s design. Just as Jesus was a servant to others, elders are called to act accordingly, serving and leading the church. And as an elder submits himself to God and sets his life’s aim to be more like Jesus, he is able to help shepherd the people, provide insight and wisdom, and be an example for those in the congregation. [Video File] [Audio File]

The Christmas season is upon us, and like so many in our culture, these weeks leading up to Christmas can come with a frantic pace, and if we're not careful allow the affections of our heart to drift away from Christ and onto lesser things. Historically speaking, the church has sought to redeem these weeks leading up to Christmas by viewing them through a lens of Advent – a term that means "coming" or "arrival." In this message we'll learn how it is we can view the First Advent of Christ, when He came as a baby to save, in such a way that will also help us prepare our hearts as we await the Second Advent of Christ, when He'll come as a King to reign. Resources ARTICLE: Why Celebrate Advent (Timothy Paul Jones) BOOK: Song of the Stars (Sally Lloyd Jones) BOOK: The Donkey Who Carried a King (RC Sproul) BOOK: The Christmas Promise (Allison Mitchell) BOOK: The First Days of Jesus (Andreas Kostenberger) DEVOTIONAL: Prepare Him Room (Marty Machowski) DEVOTIONAL: Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Ann Voskamp) DEVOTIONAL: Advent Guide (The Village Church - 2015) DEVOTIONAL: The Dawning of Indestructible Joy (John Piper) DEVOTIONAL: Good News of Great Joy (John Piper) DEVOTIONAL: God Is in the Manger (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) DEVOTIONAL: Advent and Christmas Wisdom (Various Theologians) DEVOTIONAL: Advent and Christmas Wisdom (G.K. Chesterton) DEVOTIONAL: Watch for the Light (Various Theologians) DEVOTIONAL: Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Nancy Guthrie) DEVOTIONAL: Counting the Days, Lighting the Candles (Elyse Fitzpatrick) [Video File] [Audio File]

In a time when life was rough, Micah had a message for the people of God. The enemy was at the gate. Assyria was knocking on the door of the northern kingdom to eradicate them and scatter them over the lands, and the legal defense for what the Lord required from His people was given. What God asked of His people then is still an accurate picture of what He asks from us today. What Micah called out for by faith we know by name: Jesus the Christ, who makes it possible for us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord our God. [Video File] [Audio File]

Who is Jesus, really? Jesus is the King. He is the Savior. He is the way, the truth and the life. And He wasn't lying when He said no one comes to the Father but through Him. He has established a kingdom, and He is seated on the throne. He promised to return, and He will reign forever. And He has called us to be a part of His kingdom. A righted view of Jesus, of seeing Him exalted and on the throne, really should affect who we are as those who claim to be followers of Christ, as well as how we respond. It should move us to live differently. We have to make that shift from the head down to the heart because God wants our hearts to be His. And everything changes after that. [Video File] [Audio File]

When Jesus gives the Great Commission, He says, go, therefore, into all nations and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). He doesn't say go and just share the gospel. In many ways, discipleship is a lost art because our faith has become so intellectual that there’s no heart involved in it. Discipleship takes time face to face. It’s messy, it requires us to invest in other people, and we can't lead somebody where we’ve never been. Jesus’ time with the disciples was a model that shaped what life in Christ ought to be like. He taught people how to be disciples: men and women who walk with God, spending their time trying to become more like Him and helping others become more like Him. [Video File] [Audio File]

As Christ's church and image bearers of God, we were both created and saved to be a generous people. Unfortunately, due to our own sin, as well as being immersed in a consumerist culture, we all have a tendency to drift towards selfishness with the resources God has given us. In this message, we'll look how a powerful understanding of the grace of Jesus Christ brought about a radical paradigm shift for the early church concerning their own grace in generosity. We'll also examine how that same grace can bring about our own paradigm shift concerning the time, treasures and talents God has given us to steward for His Kingdom. [Video File] [Audio File]

Since the beginning of time, God has been about gathering His people to delight and worship in His presence. For centuries, God's people would gather three times a year in Jerusalem to celebrate God's faithfulness and power to save and redeem. But following Jesus' death and resurrection, along with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in God's people, a radical paradigm shift took place concerning the church and its corporate gatherings. In this message, we'll unpack what it was that moved the early church to begin joyfully gathering weekly, and what the implications are for us as His church today. [Video File] [Audio File]

When Jesus talks of suffering and what He's going to endure, the disciples don’t quite get the concept of endurance. Yet with a righted view of Jesus and the Spirit empowering them, there's an understanding that they’re worthy to suffer for His name. Paul says we are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ – if indeed we suffer. In a sense, the trials and difficulties we endure in our lives are an apologetic for our faith in God. They are a defense or proof of the fact that we serve God, because we are willing to endure and able to endure suffering. The commitment level of an intellectual faith says we believe in Jesus as long as it doesn’t cost us too much. Shifting to a heart transformation belief in Jesus means we will follow Him wherever and at whatever cost. [Video File] [Audio File]

On the night Jesus was betrayed, shortly before His arrest, trials and execution on the cross, He shares the Passover meal with His disciples. Jews had shared this meal every year for the previous 1500 years, celebrating God’s incredible deliverance from their bondage of slavery under the Egyptians. Yet Jesus flips this meal completely on its head, powerfully demonstrating to His disciples that this meal had always been a foreshadowing of Him. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God who came to redeem us from the bondage of sin and establish a new covenant with us based on His grace. Through this passage we’ll seek to understand why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper (Communion) as a church. We’ll re-examine the depth and power of the gospel that has redeemed us, is redeeming us, and will one day redeem us. [Video File] [Audio File]

Just days before the crucifixion, Mark takes us to an intimate dinner scene in Bethany with Jesus and His closest friends. In the midst of dinner, Mary, sister of Lazarus, becomes overwhelmed by the thought of the coming death of Christ. What she does next demonstrates one of the greatest acts of worship recorded in the Gospels. [Video File] [Audio File]