Burnt Hickory | Sermons

In today’s bible study, we explore Luke chapter 24, and we learn some powerful lessons about Jesus. One of the greatest gifts given to mankind is the powerful, personal, live-giving, and complete word of God that points to Jesus, the loving Savior. We also serve a God that personally cares about every individual in the world, including you. If you truly search for Jesus, he will show himself to you. These are amazing aspects of our savior and a powerful part of our faith in him as our savior. All you have to do is call on the name of the Lord to be saved!

We celebrate Easter every year, but what did the resurrection actually accomplish? If we believe that its true, it means that we are redeemed from our sin and Jesus has secured out future. Because of his sacrifice and offering his power we can truly live, to live with hope. We study in Luke that after Jesus was crucified, the tomb was discovered empty. What an amazing fact, that the empty tomb has bought our eternity, the vacancy has bought our victory. We can have hope and life because of Jesus.

As we look towards Easter next weekend, we follow along Jesus’ path towards the cross. After his entry into Jerusalem, things turn dark quickly. It’s easy to misdirect our hope like the disciples did. Or to misunderstand hope based on our circumstances. But we learn from scripture that because of Jesus, we have true and redeeming hope that restores us through the cross. 1 Peter 2:24 says “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” We have healing because of Jesus’ sacrifice, and we look to celebrate Easter because he has risen, indeed.

Our Radiate Students hosted an amazing DNOW weekend where hundreds of middle and high school students got to recharge their faith, come together for fun and fellowship, and were inspired to carry the gospel to the lost through their schools and friends. It was 2 days filled with worship, games, and small group time, and lives were transformed. Today, we get to experience the ending to an impactful weekend through hearing from our DNOW guest speaker Kelly Knouse. Get ready to dive into learning about servanthood and our charge to share the gospel with our lost friends.

Special Guest: Kelly Knouse.

This week, we study the bible and discover what God says about dealing with shame. We learn that guilt is the focus on the what, and shame is the focus on the who, and shame comes from feelings of guilt from what we have done. Shame can be brought into our lives by others, but mostly it comes from something about you that you have no control over. By studying Mark chapter 5, we see that shame leads us to become something that God never intended us to be, but we have a way of freedom from shame. If you’re dealing with shame and guild feelings, check out this sermon and learn how God can heal you and you can move on in life through truth.

This week, we continue to look at what scripture says about our feelings and how we can trust and lean into God’s promises and rely on his character when life gets tough. As we study Matthew chapter 6, we learn that anxiety pushes us to think too little of God and tries to hide how much God thinks of us. Its easy to see what we are devoted to in life, since we tend to worry the most about it, but that worry doesn’t change anything. As we deal with anxiety in life, we have to rely on God’s promises and our faith needs to drive our feelings, not the other way around.

Depression is when you are looking into the now and into the future, and all you feel is despair, suffocating darkness, and no clear way back to joy. Today we study Jerimiah chapter 3 to see what scripture says about dealing with depression and finding joy in what seems like a place of no hope. We learn that its ok to express raw emotions to God when we are struggling, and many of the greatest Christ followers in history are not those that God delivered from pain and sorrow, but those who God delivered through it. Learn how to recall and search for the goodness of God and discover the good lessons God is trying to teach you in your time of despair.

This morning in our bible study, we look at Philippians chapter 2, where we dive into what it means to have true joy. To shine the salvation message of Jesus like the stars to the dark world, joy has to replace a critical, grumbling, and arguing heart. We know that this world is crooked and perverted, but we as Christ followers must recognize our position and we must grow from that. We also learn that we must live out our calling through our attitude and actions if we are to shine like the stars.

We conclude our sermon series called the Transformed Life this week by looking at Simon Peter. We dive into scripture to look at Simon Peter’s face-to-face encounter with Jesus that changed his life. What we see as Simon remembers, is restored by, and eventually recommissioned by the grace of Jesus Christ, we learn that we should follow Him and not compare ourselves with someone else. When we do follow Jesus, our lives will reflect Him through faithful obedience, unwavering love, and a passionate commitment to Him. Jerry Bridges puts it like this - “You are loved and accepted by God through the merit of Jesus… Nothing you ever do will cause him to love you any more or any less. He loves you strictly by His grace given to you through Jesus.”

In our bible study today, we look at Saul’s conversion in Acts chapter 22. The significance of this divine face to face encounter with Jesus is absolutely life changing for Saul, even to the point of his name change. We look at the aspects of the contact, conviction, the conversion, and ultimately, the commission of Paul in this experience. As believers, we each have a purpose and a story. God never leaves us where we are. We need to ask two simple but life changing questions – who are you Lord, and what shall I do?