Bent Oak Church

Why does the Old Testament law say what it says about men and women? In this message from our series on men and women, we look at the hard passages honestly and ask what a law is for. Laws exist because of wrongs; they're floors, not ceilings, meant to check the spread of evil rather than inspire what's possible. The law of Israel was given in the middle of a story, to a people still living in the wreckage of Genesis 3, and Jesus himself said parts of it were given for hardness of heart.

As we continue our look at the Biblical relationship between men and women, we come to the call of Abraham and the promise God makes to him and to Sarah. We will see that the promise required their partnership, and yet each of them found a plan to secure it alone and at the other's expense. Genesis records their failures side by side, and then shows us the one God goes out to find.

As we continue our look at the Biblical relationship between men and women, we come to the first sin, often called the fall of man. We will see that as God created men and women in cooperation with one another, they shared not only in their calling but also in their disobedience. But their shared disobedience drove a wedge between what God had created.

We begin our new series by examining the two creation accounts and the countercultural narrative of God's creation of male and female. God made men and women in his image and tasked them, as partners, with fruitfulness and dominion. 

From Jesus' prayers in the gospels to the church gathered to pray in homes and the temple, God's people are a people of prayer. As we wrap up our series on Acts, we're looking at one last theme: prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and as they took the gospel ot the world, they taught us to pray as well. 

We are continuing to look at the major themes of Acts. This week we look at Christ's calling to bear witness. The church sent missionaries to the world, but each also took responsibility for bearing witness wherever they were. We look at what it means to be participants in that work today.  

We are concluding our Acts study by looking back at the major themes of the book. This week, we are looking at the prominence of food and meals. The church ate together, and it was at the table that the church grew in unexpected ways. Why do meals together still matter for the church today?

As we wrap up our study of Acts, we are taking a few weeks to look back at the major themes of the book. This week, we look at the prominent work of the Spirit, and why it is significant that the Spirit is not just poured out on leaders or apostles, but on all flesh: young and old, male and female, influential and common people.

Paul finally arrives in Rome. But for all the difficulty in arriving, the final image is humble. Paul does what he has done in nearly every city before. Instead of a dramatic ending, Acts concludes with an image of faithfulness and the promise that nothing can hinder the gospel from going forward.

Shippwrecked on the island of Malta, Paul still faced danger. Bitten by a snake, Paul was again saved by God's power and used it as an opportunity to bear witness to those on the island. Pastor Barry Kinzer walks us through the passage.