September 1, 2016
Christianity is not self-improvement. It is an invitation to come and die, that we might be born again. It is not incremental nor partial, but drastic and total. By believing and receiving Christ, we are found in Him. Our old nature we count crucified with Christ. Our new nature and identity in Christ, we count as risen with Him. And so, we no longer “regard” anyone according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In Christ, we are a “new creation,” and we regard everyone and everything in a new way.
January 10, 2016
|
2 Corinthians 5:7 - 6:2
|
beginnings
We all want to change something, but the problem is that it’s impossible to change ourselves without the help of the One who made us. This deep desire for a new and fresh you, is actually from God. In the apostle Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, he encouraged them them to fully become the new creation in Christ that God desired. We can experience the new life that God offers us through Christ.
August 31, 2015
Presently, we walk through life believing in our risen Lord without actually seeing Him. We believe because of the witnesses – the witness of the Bible, of the saints who have passed the faith down to us, and because of the inner witness of the Spirit of adoption who causes us to cry out, “Abba, Father” to our God. Our faith is by God’s grace and not our sight. The world says seeing is believing. However, Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed” (John 20:29). We believe in the risen Lord. He is the Head of His body, the Church. And so, we believe that just as the Head was raised, so shall the body be raised. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead, will raise us. We live by this faith, even though our eyes have not yet seen its fulfillment.
September 1, 2014
Who has been given this message of reconciliation? Everyone who has been reconciled in Christ. The reconciled no longer evaluate others from a human point of view, based on outward differences of gender, ethnicity, or status. Those reconciled see only people of two spiritual conditions: those who have received the message, and those who have not. The reconciled have the most wonderful good news to tell those who are far from God. They feel called to organize their lives around obeying Christ’s command to bear witness of this message of reconciliation to the ends of the earth.
January 6, 2013
|
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
|
beginnings, discipleship
Wayne Sullivan taught from 2 Corinthians 5 about how Christ reconciles us to God and gives us the ministry of reconciliation to the world.
September 1, 2012
My prayer as WCC’s pastor is not that our members would brag about our preaching, our band, or our building, but that they would boast of how the Lord is moving in our midst and changing hearts. We want to make Jesus famous, not ourselves.