If Jesus is our living hope, then we can live our lives with a daily hope regardless of our circumstances!
We Are Purposeful
We are continuing a four part sermon series on the core values of Wayside Communities Church. Kevin reminds us that we all live purposeful lives, and God can and will use us for our good, the good of others, and for His gory.
Daniel 12:1-13 "Daniel's Final Vision: Pt. 2"
God has an amazing ending in store, and we get to share in His victory!
Daniel 3:19-30 - "Rescued From The Fiery Furnace"
God is sovereign, and He is with before, during and after every trial in this life.
1 Thessalonians 4 - "Grieving With Hope"
Acts 24:1-27 - "Pleasing God, Not Man"
In today’s passage, we see multiple opponents of Paul attacking his character and trying to have him taken out. They are seeking to please man, not God. And we do this too. But pleasing man leads to doubt and fear, and pleasing God leads to peace and boldness.
Acts 14:21-28 - "Strengthening the Church"
As believers, new or longstanding, we need to be strengthened in our faith and we need to continue to grow in spiritual maturity. As we will see in our passage today, believers need to be strengthened through discipleship, under the guidance of a church body and pastoral leadership, and through celebration in Christ. We need to be disciples and we need to make disciples that are growing in faith.
Acts 8:26-40 - "The Gospel Is For Everyone"
If we have a personal relationship with Jesus, then we have a knowledge and experience of Him that is worthy of being shared. To be a Christian is to be a witness for Christ, so let’s be effective witnesses. Ultimately, this requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:8), but as we see in today’s passage, we definitely have a role to play. However, we must be sensitive and obedient to God’s Spirit. If we are, then we will know where to go, who to reach, and how to share Christ with them.
Acts 2:42-47 - "The First Church Plant"
A thriving Christian community is essential for a thriving Christian life. Today, we are going to look at what makes a community thrive for God’s glory. We are going to look at our passage in light of our core values here at Wayside: biblical, relational, and purposeful.
Hebrews 12:1-3 - "Encouragement to Endure"
The Christian life is an endurance race. And it’s easy for us to lose heart and lose focus on our ultimate goal, Jesus Christ. We get hit with tough news. We lose a job. A relationship goes south. We can’t shake a sin struggle. Maybe we’re tempted to go back to our old ways, or to choose comfort or complacency. The good news is that, no matter what our life circumstances are, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can run and finish our race well. Focusing on Jesus allows us to run with encouragement, without encumbrances, and with a perfect example.
Hebrews 3:13-19 - "Fight Hard, Finish Well"
Why is exhortation so important? As we saw last week, we need to “take care, lest there be an evil, unbelieving heart in us leading us to fall away from the living God.” The sobering reality is that unbelief leads to a hard heart that is deceived by sin. But exhortation helps us fight well and finish well, so let’s exhort one another in love.
Hebrews 1:1-3 - "The Exalted Christ"
We can’t let familiarity rob us of our wonder. When we don’t have a daily awe and wonder of Jesus Christ, we won’t be able to fully worship Him with our lives. Daily wonder produces a worship-filled life, a daily walk with Jesus that helps us persevere and stirs us to talk about Him with others.
Proverbs 24:30-34 - "Don't Waste Your Life"
The hard truth is that laziness is incredibly wasteful, so we need to learn how to recognize and avoid it at all costs. Today’s proverb teaches us about the consequences and characteristics of laziness so we can recognize it, overcome it by the power of the Holy Spirit, and live wisely to be fruitful for God’s glory and the good of others.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 - "Praying With Purpose"
What we see in these two verses will help us have a better perspective on how to pray for one another, especially in the current situation we are living through. Praying with purpose for one another will help us persevere. It will also help us point each other to the hope in Christ’s return and how we can live lives that point to His glory in the meantime. In our passage, Paul gives us a great template for how, what, and why to pray with purpose.
Luke 22:1-30 - "Intimacy With Christ: The Last Supper"
Jesus desires deep intimacy with us. He made it possible by sacrificing His body and blood. But we are a distracted people and distraction disrupts our intimacy with Christ. So why are we distracted? Luke shows us that, just like Jesus’s earliest disciples, we are distracted because we lack trust, understanding, and humility.
