Beyond the Message

Depend on the grace of God in your devotion to the mission of God. We are called to spiritually invest in the lives of others - like soldiers who are laser-focused, athletes who compete with integrity, and farmers who work hard. This mission of God is too important for you not to participate, but too large for you to accomplish on your own. So, we need to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Recommended Resources:

Evangelism as Exiles

Let the Nations Be Glad

Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global

The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church

You Will Be My Witnesses

Evangelism Is...

The rhythm of weekly worship encourages us and others with the realities of Christ - his past work and future hope. We were created to worship and we all worship something. Our foundation and motivation for worship is that Christ has invited us into right relationship with God the Prize.

Recommended Resources:

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

God the Prize

Worship: The Reason We Were Created

Family Worship

Knowing God

Did you know we can approach prayer with improper motivations, mindsets, and methods? The right motivation for prayer is one in which we pray to be heard by God, not seen by others. The correct mindset in prayer is one in which we pray intentionally to enjoy God, not mechanically to appease God. And the proper method for prayer is when we pray God-centered prayers, not self-centered prayers.

Highlights from the message:

Forget “New Year, New Me”… the key to true transformation is not through a discipline of self-improvement but self-denial, think more along the lines of “New Year, less of me.”

Prayer is not what comes naturally to us, pride is what comes naturally to us. Prayer is assumed because it is what we need to continually reorient our lives to a God-centered focus.

Fasting is also assumed and should be done both reactively and proactively.

Practical Encouragements:

Pray like a child - Pray with God as the focus - Fast with a purpose.

Are you a Bible Person? Followers of Jesus are Bible people. Someone is a Bible person if they love their Bible, read it daily, memorize scripture, align their life with God’s Word, and others know that the Bible guides and directs their life.

Highlights from the message:

Reading the Bible at least four times a week is proven to result in a dramatic change of behavior and missional engagement.

Practical Tips

Start somewhere. Pick a time, pick a place, pick a plan.

Bible Dwelling: Small bites. Chew it up. Digest it in your heart. Let it come out in prayer.

SOAP: Scripture. Observation. Application. Prayer.

Stop by the Veritas Bookstore to browse the recommended resources for engaging with God through his Word! https://www.veritaschurch.org/books?s=1

Follow along with our current Bible Reading Plan in the Veritas Church App, pick up a bookmark from the Bookstore, or download it here 

The good news of Jesus Christ is song-producing news! The good news of Jesus Christ is cause for celebration, especially singing. Understanding the good news of Christmas results in song-producing JOY!

Highlights from the message:

If someone looked at your response to the good news of Jesus, would it appear that you get it? A life lived in continual response to the good news of Jesus is one where the holiness of God (his uniqueness) is perceived in the glory of God (the impact of his uniqueness).

The impact of Christ coming to earth results in peace with God, peace with self, and peace with others.

We get to give glory to God in all of life because of the peace we have with him!

Praising God starts with trusting God. God has graciously given us a Savior while we were spiritually hungry. Worship of God reflects his holiness and our wretched state apart from his saving power. Public praise of God in the extraordinary moments of life overflows from people who privately praise God in the ordinary moments of life.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Grace is real and God is worth it. Paul gives a call to follow Christ wholeheartedly. The call to follow Jesus is a call to embrace hardship, engage in ministry, and live for eternity.

The call to be a Christian is to be an ambassador for Christ. We find ourselves in the world and sent to the world. We desire to recapture the heart and passion to spread the good news of Jesus. This is more than a call to evangelism, this is a call to personal repentance: take the grace of God seriously, be an ambassador for Christ.

Highlights from the message:

Why Evangelize? The Stakes are high. The call is clear. The news is good.

How to Evangelize? Persuasion. Relating. Displaying. Treating. Informing. Passionately. Representation.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 | Part 1: The Work of Reconciliation. We can enjoy God forever through God's atoning, transforming, and transferring work of reconciliation through Christ. Jake and Sam follow up on this sermon and discuss how salvation is primarily about reconciliation and worship. Salvation is a work of God from beginning to end. The atonement of Christ includes both the removal of sin and fully settles the record of debt we owe. We understand double imputation from 2 Corinthians 5:21, this means our sin is imputed onto Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed onto us.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17. See others in the world differently because of how God sees you in Christ. Michael and Sam follow up on this sermon and discuss how being in Christ changes how we see people. We need to believe and live out the fact that everyone who currently is not in Christ is a potential new creation in Christ.