South Lake Nazarene

#HeartForTheLost

“Paul's response isn't hatred. It's not bitterness, it's not indifference, it's grief. It's grief because these people that he loves, his people that he loves, don't get it. They don't see or understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior that has been promised to them, and it grieves him heavily. Paul, if I'm to be honest, Paul was never concerned that people disagreed with him. He was grieved because they were separated from Christ. That's what the burden that's on his heart.”

#GodsTreasure

“And in a sense, Jesus is reminding us, remember, he's trying to address how we feel about other people. Do we recognize that all of humanity is god's treasured possession? Not just you and me because we attend church, not just you and me because we say our prayers and read our bible... Bibles, but all humanity, every human being is a precious coin in God's eyes.”

#SeeLikeJesus

“So maybe this morning, before we ask Jesus to help us see one more, maybe we need to ask Jesus, what do you see in me? Is there pride in me? Is there judgment in me? Have I become cynical? Have I become so frustrated with the world that I've stopped loving the people in it? Have I reduced people to their politics, their sexuality, their addictions, their choices, their failures? Have I become really good at identifying what is wrong with people and really bad at seeing people?”

#JesusHasTheFinalWord

“I need you to listen to me here. Forgiveness didn't make what happened that day okay. Forgiveness meant what happening wasn't going to become Lord over John's life. The accident doesn't get the final word. The injuries don't. The surgeries don't. The man driving the truck doesn't. Bitterness doesn't. Fear doesn't. But Jesus Christ does. That's who gets the last word in all of this. Faith doesn't always change what happens to us, but faith changes who gets the final word over us. That's why we have faith.”

#JesusIsTheFinalWord

“Some of us know a lot of names. We know the names of people who have disappointed us, the names of people who have hurt us, the names of doctors who have given us bad news, the names attached to our failures, the names people have called us, and maybe even the names that we've called ourselves. Failure, addict, unwanted, unworthy, too far gone. But there is one name greater than every other name that has ever been spoken over your life, the name of Jesus. And when you know that name, when you trust that name, when you surrender to that name, your past no longer gets the final word. Your shame no longer gets the final word. Your sin no longer gets the final word. Death itself does not get the final word. Jesus does.”

#PastDoesntDefineYou

“God never denied Rahab's past. He simply refuses for her past to dictate her future. God didn't say Rahab wasn't really a prostitute. She didn't really do things she shouldn't. He never covers it up. He doesn't rewrite history. He leaves it there plain as day. Did he do it to humiliate her? No. Did not do it to humiliate her. But what he is trying to say and what he's screaming is, I know what you were, but you don't have to be that.”

#ComeAsYouAreToJesus

“And if there's somebody here with us today, and you're not even sure what you believe about Jesus yet, Maybe the first thing you need to hear is that your worst moment has not disqualified you from coming closer. You don't have to clean up your story before you bring it to Jesus. We began the sermon today looking at two terms, guilt and shame. The guilt that says, did something wrong, and the shame that morphs that into, I am something wrong.”

#GospelInOrder

“So, don't get the order of the gospel backwards. Jesus died for us. We are invited to receive the forgiveness and become God's children. And then, as we sit in the presence of the king who rescued us, he cleans us and we become more like him. Mephibosheth was invited. He accepted the invitation. He was brought to the king and he lived the rest of his life at the king's table, regularly eating with David as one of his own sons.”

#CrossLoveDoorOpen

“When we think about the cross, the cross tells us two things at the same time. Our sin was more serious than we ever wanted to admit to. And God's love was greater than we ever dared to hope. The door is still open. The price has already been paid. So the final question this morning is, does God still want me? Hosea has already answered that question. So maybe, we need to change that. Our final question actually becomes this morning, if God has done all these things to bring me home, why am I still standing outside?”

#SanctifyingGrace

“Because grace doesn't merely save us from something. Grace transforms us into someone. The person that we were created to be uniquely and beautifully knit together in our mother's womb, that's grace, sanctifying grace. And now this morning, we see grace continuing on with Apollos. That we find out that God had already been working in his life. And when we encounter Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila aren't starting something up with him. God's already been at work there. They're stepping into something God has already started in this man, in Apollos.”

#DiscipleshipIsCharacter

“Paul is saying, set your heart and minds right before you come to this table. But he's also saying more than that, I love the the words that Paul uses in this passage. He uses words like remembrance, gratitude, repentance, humility, dependence. Those words matter because a disciple not only learns what these words mean, but a disciple learns how to live them out in their daily life. It's more than vocabulary. It is character. The question isn't whether you know something about Jesus. The question is whether you're still learning from him. You see, a disciple never graduates from learning to be like Jesus. And perhaps the most beautiful truth in the entire story this morning is this, Barnabas saw in Saul what Saul could not see for himself. That's what disciples do. They help people become who God is calling them to be.”

#FaithFoundInFailure

“``Some of the strongest followers of Jesus are not the people who avoided the fire. They're the people who met Jesus in it. If you're here and you're not sure what to believe yet, maybe maybe you assume Christianity begins with pretending that you've never failed. Let me tell you, Peter's story says the opposite, and Jesus meets failed people with truth, grace, and a new invitation of follow me.”

#FaithOverObstacles

“``I want to go back to verse four for just a second because I want you to hear something that faith refuses to let obstacles keep people from Jesus. When we have faith In Jesus, we'll do whatever we have to to get people to Lord Jesus Christ. You see these four men show up with this Caroline band on man, and there's an obstacle there, a roof. These four men refused to allow it to be the end of his story. The roof mattered, right? It certainly mattered to the homeowner. Hey, it's a homeowner. What are you doing? The roof matters, but Jesus matters more.”

#ShareTheGospel

“``But here's the the thing. Church, if we don't share the gospel, what's gonna happen at the end of three years if this church doesn't learn how to be a discipling making church, if we don't invite others into the church, if we don't grow? There's ramifications of the lack of faith that'll affect not only us but churches around the world. So the mission is in your hands. It's a beautiful mission. There is nothing more beautiful, more sacred than carrying the hope of eternal life to the world around us.”

#ChooseJesusFirst

“``Because sooner or later, following Jesus will put you in a position where you have to decide whose voice carries the greatest authority in your life. Is it the crowd? Is it the critics? Is it the expectation of other people, or is it Jesus Christ? You have to make that decision at some point in your life. This man had spent thirty eight years unable to move. Thirty eight years unable to get off that mat, and then Jesus spoke. And now that he could walk, he wasn't gonna put that mat back down and return to the pool just because someone didn't approve. See, when Jesus changes your life, don't go back to where you were because someone is uncomfortable with where he is leading you. Follow him with obedience. Obedience to Jesus will not always be understood, but it will always be worth following.”

#BlessingsCanBlind

“Because God knows something about the human heart. People rarely abandon God when they are desperate. More often, they drift from God when they become comfortable. That's why this warning is so important to Israel. God is not warning them about famine. He's warning them about success. And that leads us to a dangerous truth. Blessings can lead to self sufficiency, and self sufficiency can lead to forgetting about God. This is his very warning. He says, you'll eat and be satisfied. You'll build and succeed. You begin to say, look at what I have created. Look at what I have built. Look at what I have done. And we forget the Lord.”

#DelayHardensHeart

“``The tragedy of Felix is not simply that he loved his sin. The tragedy is that every time he postponed obedience, his heart became a little harder. That's really what happens to all of us. And in those moments when we know we're supposed to do something, but we don't do it and we allow our heart to grow harder, we grow further and further away from Jesus. Luke could have ended the story there, but he doesn't. Instead, he introduces us to another ruler, another powerful man, and another opportunity for the gospel to be heard.”

#NotNowIsStillNo

“Here's the truth. Hell is full of people who intended to respond later. Hell is full of people who intended to make a decision later. I just don't wanna do it today. I don't feel comfortable. I don't feel right. Satan loves that, by the way, when you feel that way. Because delay is not neutral. Delay is still a decision. Not now is still a no. Don't kid yourself. When you don't follow Jesus, when you say not now, you are saying no.”

#NightIsADecision

“Nothing good happens after midnight. I think so often that we we say that, and we don't fully get the implication of what that is. Nothing good happens after midnight. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. This is huge. Night is symbolic. It's not just a detail, it was a decision. I think you need to know that. Night is not a detail that they're telling you. This is a decision that was made. Nicodemus wanted Jesus privately without being publicly identified with him.”

#TrustJesusFirst

“But here's the hard truth. Anything you trust more than Jesus will be the thing that keeps you from Jesus. That's the hard truth. The thing that you trust more than Jesus Christ will be the very thing that keeps you from growing in faith with him. And because of that, Jesus calls it out to the young man. He's not gonna waste any time. Jesus is off on a journey. He's headed to the next town, and it's clear that this young man actually wants an answer. So Jesus just tells him, hey, here's the problem. You trust money more than me.”

#LiveWorthyOfGrace

“This is the question the entire series has been building to. If we're called to live a life worthy of his grace, what can we offer the Lord? What do we do with grace like this? We walk differently. We love differently. We forgive differently. We live out this life differently than the world around us, not because grace is a church word, but because grace left heaven, took on the form of a man, experienced the pain of this world, and gave up his life so that we could have an eternal one. That's the grace that called out to us. That's the grace that saved us. That's the grace that is making us holy.”

#SurrenderNotSelf

“Now, maybe you're here with us for the first time this morning, and you're not sure what you believe, and when we're talking about something like entire sanctification, maybe that seems impossible to you. Well, I want you to hear this. It is. It's impossible for you to achieve. That's the whole point. Maybe you've spent the whole your whole life trying to change yourself. Christianity isn't about self repair, it's about surrendering to the god who can transform what you cannot.”

#GraceTransforms

“See, grace is not permission to stay the same. Grace is the power of God to become like his son. And if you're here with us this morning and you're not sure what you believe, maybe this sounds impossible. Like, I I don't know if I can do the sanctifying grace thing. You're right. You can't. You can't. It is impossible. That's the whole point. This is why Christianity is not self help. It is surrender to the God who changes people from the inside out.”

#biblicalLiteracy

“``And here's the danger. This is where I'm going with this. A culture without literacy becomes vulnerable to confusion, but a church without biblical literacy becomes vulnerable to counterfeit Christianity. That's a huge problem in the church. Let me say it another way. If Christians are not biblically literate, the loudest voice in culture will eventually become your theology. That's the danger. That's the danger that we're facing in the church today.”

#SalvationIsAllegiance

“``Today, we're learning that the grace that God gives us demands allegiance to him. Now, salvation and allegiance to Christ are two sides of the same coin. They're two sides of the same coin. Meaning, you can't accept Jesus' salvation from sin without accepting an invitation into a life under the lordship of Christ. You can't receive salvation from your sin without being saved into a life under the Lord's authority. If you accept his salvation, you must turn over control of your life to Jesus.”

#FreedNotComfortable

“What Paul is saying is that, has grace freed you? Has God's saving grace freed you or simply made you more comfortable returning to old crimes? Sometimes, this is the trap Christians fall into. And once we're saved, we know that God will forgive us, and we start a very dangerous cycle of going back and sinning and then asking for forgiveness. If you've ever read the Old Testament in its completeness, that's what Israel does. By the way, it doesn't end well for Israel.”

#ObedienceForMiracles

“Here's the truth. Every single one of us needs to hear this morning. Your obedience your obedience may be part of someone else's miracle. I think we under we we cut ourselves short all the time. We don't think we have the right words. We don't think we understand anything. We're shy. We're an introvert. We make all the excuses, and we fail to see that our obedience might be the key to somebody else's miracle.”

#FollowMeFirst

“``Two words that we take for granted. Two words that are full of grace. Follow me. Because here's why it's full of grace. You see, there is there's no prequalification to be a Christian. Hallelujah and amen on that one. Right? You don't you don't have to take a a class. You don't you don't have to sign a document. There's no behavior adjustment. There's none of that. The call to follow Christ always comes before the change.”

#CrossDemandsResponse

“Not as a statement of relief, but of completion. What was required has been done. And if that is true, then this is no longer something we can simply observe. This is something each of us has to face. Because the cross does not leave us where we were, it does not allow us to walk away unchanged and draws a line. You can turn from him or you can follow him, but you cannot pretend this means nothing. And you cannot see this clearly and remain the same.”

#BaptismDeclaration

“``Baptism is not just a church experience. It is the first obedient step of a resurrected life. You don't get baptized because you're ready. You get baptized because Jesus is alive. Running from the tomb is repentance. Putting to death your old way of life and stepping into the water, these waters is allegiance, being raised into a new life under a living king. Baptism is where your allegiance becomes visible. It's where you stop belonging to your to yourself, and you publicly declare Jesus is my king.”

#SurrenderBeforeTheMoment

“The contrast is clear. Jesus faces the pressure before it arrives, but the disciples face the pressure when it's too late. The disciples are just like those individuals in the nightclub. They didn't think that they need to practice. I know what to do. I'm good. In case of that nightclub, a 100 people died. In the case of this story, those that were unprepared abandoned Jesus when he needed the most. You see, the battle isn't won in the moment. It's won in the surrender before it.”

“The tragedy of Jerusalem wasn't that they hated Jesus. It was that they celebrated him without truly surrendering to him. We know the rest of the story. We know that they celebrated him, but we also know they're the ones that crucified him. But the tragedy of Jerusalem was this, is that they celebrated him, but they never surrendered to him. What kind of king do your home see? What kind of king do your children see? What kind of king does the world see in your reactions or your words? What kind of king do they see?”

#ServeWithStrength

“``Here's my my challenge to you all. You see, the question is not whether you have strength. The question is whether you will place your strength under Christ's control. Because real strength doesn't demand to be served. Real strength chooses to serve. And the strongest man in the room is the one who will put on a towel and kneel. Would you pray with me? Father, today, we have learned something that still surprises us. The one who had all authority, the one who came from you and was returning to you chose to kneel. Jesus, you picked up the towel.”

#HeCrossedForUs

“``He did not cross a road to avoid us. He crossed heaven to reach us. The Samaritan paid 2 denarii. Jesus paid with his body and blood. You see, communion is not a ritual of sentiment. It's a declaration of courageous compassion. We come to this table in front of me not as heroes of the story, but it is the wounded ones that he stopped for.”

#TrustJesusWithYourFailures

“Jesus does not avoid the places you failed. These are the very moments that he steps into our lives, And it's the very moments that he uses to show us, to teach us. Maybe we've learned this in a classroom or in church, but these moments of failure when Jesus steps in are the real moments that he uses to teach us what trust and obedience actually look like. So will you trust Jesus with your messes and your failures? Will you let Jesus get into your boat in these moments?”

#StupidBraveMoment

“``And I remember thinking to myself, I bet I can swim across that. Now I I'm gonna applaud every one of you right now. You didn't gasp and you didn't laugh at me, but that is one of the dumbest thoughts I have ever had, swim across the Mississippi. Well, I went in and I swam out about a 100 yards. And I had a moment where I felt strong and I felt confident in my swimming, but I thought, maybe I should just turn around and see if there's a current pushing against me.”

#HereIAmSendMe

“``When I preach to you, you need to understand this, you cannot pray for a harvest and refuse the field. You cannot pray for workers and never consider being one yourself. You can't do it. It's rhetorical. Jesus is saying, when you pray to God, hey, send workers, and God responds to this, well, who am I going to send? There's only one clear response in scripture. Here I am. Send me.”

#WaitingForTheOne

“``Have you ever thought about that? The reason Jesus hasn't returned is because there's somebody that still matters to him that hasn't been saved. Wow. That's heavy, isn't it? When I had that revelation this week, it's like, I had never approached it in that way before. He's just waiting for that one. When he gets that one, it's all over. And when that happens, it's too late. It's too late. God is waiting because he refuses to give up on his creation too soon.”

#SeenBeforeSaved

“``You see, heaven sees souls before heaven saves souls. That's really important that you hear that. Heaven sees souls before heaven saves souls. In other words, Jesus sees us long before he saves us. You're not lost. You're not forgotten. You're not abandoned. Jesus sees you. And if you're here this morning, you're not sure what you believe, well, the beauty of Jesus is that he sees you before you ever see him.”

#JesusForEveryone

“``And so, we pray to him. He is our mediator. And Paul says, he gave himself up for us. In that context, it was Jews and Greeks. Today, we can read that a little bit easier. Jesus gave himself up for the moral and the immoral. He gave himself up for male and female, black and white. He gave himself up for insiders and outsiders. He gave himself up for everyone. Why? So that we could find a way to heaven.”

#GospelBeginsWithGod

“``But I want you to hear this, and the gospel doesn't start with our search for God. It starts with God's search for us. And if you're here this morning and not sure what you believe, this sermon matters more than you realize. Christian faith doesn't begin with you getting your life together. It begins with a god who comes looking for you.”

#PrayBeforeYouSpeak

“``You are sent as a people who pray before you speak, as people who love before you persuade, as people who carry names, not agendas. You were sent into homes, into workplaces, your schools, your neighborhoods, not as judges, not as fixers, but as faithful witnesses shaped by the compassion of Christ. May the same heart that moved Jesus when he saw the crowds now move us when we see the people around us.”

#PressOnInFaith

“``When Paul says straining forward, Paul says, I press on. That's straining forward. He's using athletic language because that's something that the culture would have understood. What is athletic language? That is effort. Right? Athleticism takes effort. It takes focus. It takes direction. In other words, this is not passive faith. This is intentional obedience. You don't move forward spiritually by accident. You move forward by choosing obedience.”

#LightInDarkness

“That means Christmas wasn't God stepping into something small. It was God bringing eternal light into real darkness, into the darkness of this world that we walk through and we face every single day. You see, Bethlehem wasn't the end of the story. It was the ignition point for us. It was the moment that light entered a broken world and refused, refused to stay contained. John says that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it. Not then, not now, not ever.”

#ScriptureAcrossGenerations

“Now before We continue on I want to I want to name Something That you're Going To notice You've already Heard The scriptures That I am About to read This morning They have been Read by Families By children By voices Across generations And that is Intentional Advent is not About hearing Something new Once It's about Letting an ancientTruth sink in Again And again When scripture Is repeated It moves From performance To proclamation From something We observe To something We receive”

#JoyPurchasedByChrist

“The joy that we've talked about today is not an abstract.It's not sentimental and it's not seasonal.Joy was given.Joy was made possible through a real sacrifice and joy was purchased.Mary's song points us forward to a Savior who would not only enter our world but he would give his body and shed his blood so that our joy could be fulfilled and our hope secured.The baby she carried became the lamb who was slain.The child who brought joy into Elizabeth's home would one day bring joy to the world through a cross and an empty tomb.”

#HopeDeclaresVictory

“``hope is not pretending that the darkness isn't real it's declaring that the darkness will not win I need you to hear that guys darkness is real and we can't pretend and we should not pretend that it is not real because it is but through the darkness we've got to declare that darkness does not win because we've been given a wonderful counselor a mighty god a prince of peace an everlasting father”

#NoMoreGoodbyes

“Goodbyes hurt because we long to be in the presence of somebody who knows us and loves us. And the awesome thing is that in the final words of the Bible, some of the final words in the Bible that we're going to read today, Jesus promises us a day is coming when goodbyes are a thing of the past. Goodbyes will be a memory. Goodbyes won't have to happen anymore. There's no more struggle for our spiritual disciplines, our spiritual growth. There's no more struggle to fight against our weakness and our flesh and our time and all these things to find time to read our Bible and pray.”

“Before Saul ever calls on the name of Jesus, Jesus already knew Saul's name. Think about that. Before Saul ever cries out the name of Jesus, Jesus already knows his name, and Jesus is pursuing him. Here's the point with this opening passage. Grace starts chasing you long before you start chasing God.”

#FaithOverPride

“Do we have more pride in our country or more faith in our God? We need to take a hard look at our country, a hard look at our faith.”

#FromWatchingToWalking

“Jesus still invites us to come and see, to experience his power through his Word and through his Spirit, so that our faith moves from watching to walking and from hearing to following.”

#TransformationNotInformation

“You see, when Jesus went from town to town teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of sickness, he wasn't just handing out tracts. He wasn't just giving them information. He was bringing transformation to their lives. Bringing transformation to their communities. He touched lepers. He fed the hungry. He lifted the broken. And he loved the forgotten. And then he told them that the kingdom of God has come near.”

#QuietWhispersOfGod

“The challenge that we have today is that noise is everywhere. Phones are buzzing, TVs are streaming, voices are demanding. Yet what if the God of the universe is whispering and we're simply too distracted to hear him? We live in a culture addicted to noise, movement, and dare I say, spectacle. However, Elijah, reminds us that God sometimes speaks most clearly in the quiet.”

#WrestlingMeansGodIsNear

“Wrestling means God is close. We miss that. We look at the fight, we look at the struggle, and we forget. Wrestling means God is close. If you've ever watched wrestling, it's intimate, right? You are invading somebody's personal space. You are right there with them in the mess, and you're working through something. Wrestling is intimate. God meets us in our mess. He's there, he's close. That's the beauty of wrestling. Instead of getting so focused on the struggle, recognize who's there with you. The God of this universe, your creator, is engaging with you.”

#RiseInJesus

“The truth is, you don't belong to yourself. You belong to Jesus. In baptism, your old life is buried and you rise to live a brand new life in Him.”

#HallelujahInTheDarkness

“But in that dark place, something holy happened. She stopped running and started reaching. She stopped hiding and started crying out. And the only word that rose from her spirit was, Hallelujah. Not because she had answers. Not because the pain disappeared. But because something in her dared to believe that God sees, that he cares, that he cares, and maybe, just maybe, God saves.”

#OneWayOneThrone

“Our lost condition necessitates a savior and underscores the stakes of our eternal judgment. Then we talked about how Jesus is the only way to heaven, that there are no other ways and this leads us to today that every knee will bow before Jesus Christ. If there is one mediator, one way, then there will be one throne before which all of us must answer.”

#JesusIsTheOnlyWay

“Jesus never points us past himself. He doesn't point us in a different direction aside from himself. He brings us to himself. He says, you know me. I am the way. And he says, the way. He doesn't say a way. One of many ways. He says, the way. Jesus is not one option among many that offer direction.”

#ConfidentlyLostWithoutChrist

“Sometimes, being lost means you're walking confidently in the wrong direction. I'm not going to ask anybody to do that, but has anybody walked confidently in the wrong direction? I did for years. Boldly, confidently, but I was lost. When that happens, you think you're fine. Maybe you even feel fine. But here's the truth. You're heading somewhere you were never intended to go. Spiritually, that's where all of us are without Christ. We're not just a little off course. The Bible says we are completely lost, disconnected from the one who created us and unable to find our way home on our own.”

#ScienceAlignsWithScripture

“Nowhere else in science is there ever an example of something coming from nothing. Ever. You see, scripture tells us something else. I'm sure we're all familiar with the creation story, but I want to focus in on just the very beginning. In Genesis 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth... What I want you to see in that scripture is the very first words. In the beginning, God. That's all you need to know about creation. In the beginning, God. Everything. Everything begins and ends with him. Creation is intentional. Because God made it that way. It's not accidental.”