CCF Weekly Services Podcast

When Jesus took on flesh, we understand what God considers valuable. He didn't become a soul after His resurrection or only appear as an apparition in order to communicate what He saw as most important about mankind. He saw life, the pleasures and pain that comes with it, and our ultimate relationship with Him all valuable for the same reason. If we abandon purpose, all we can do is reflect on the past. If we understand that even the good things in life have a purpose, the bad will be put into perspective through joy.

1. What we do in this life matters in eternity.
2. Nostalgia is discontentment with the present rather than hope for the future.
3. Life proves that suffering is worthy.

The Incarnation of Jesus tells us certain things about God that can be known. The world we live in apart from God tries to maintain the status quo by denying or dismissing this as a pointless pursuit, but a personal God doesn't allow that kind of conclusion to be rational. If God has come to this world and proven Himself to be who He is, then all goodness, truth, and purpose come from Him. The alternative is freedom at the cost of meaning.

1. God is Real.
2. God can be Known.
3. God is Good.

Jesus came to this world with a willingness to sacrifice His own well being for our benefit. The Christian life is then defined as the living out of His example. We can do this through our churches and family, or we can neglect it by focusing on ourselves.

1. Our Identity will either be established by God or something less.
2. Our Identity will either be developed through our relationships with each other or something less.
3. People are eternal beings living in the midst of a temporary world. Invest your time accordingly.

The final church Jesus addresses is the church that had conformed to their culture at the expense of their relationship with Christ. Their luxury and comfort had caused them to be willing to make compromises with truth. Yet instead of abandoning them in kind, Jesus continues to pursue fellowship with them and correct them regarding what was keeping them from enjoying Him.

1. Jesus corrects Laodicea about conforming to culture at the expense of His Word.
2. Progress isn't a virtue if you're progressing away from truth.
3. Jesus still sought fellowship with a church that no longer saw a need for Him.

As the earthly ministry of Jesus enters its final weeks, Jesus gives His disciples three examples of the kind of people that genuinely benefit from a relationship with Him. First, He exposes their unwillingness to listen to the truth regardless of the fact He's explained the truth of His crucifixion to them three times already. Second, He seeks out the blind man that recognized Him as the Messiah even to the neglect of the crowds that hadn't made up their mind yet. And finally, He singles out a man named Zaccheaus as the kind of man who can be saved even when his entire culture had written him off as a lost cause. All three examples were meant to drive this single point home to His disciples. What was Jesus here to do? To seek and to save those who were lost.

1. God's word is the lens through which we need to discern God's work.
2. God's work in our lives should be something people can see more than they should hear us talk about.
3. God's will is the salvation of those who understand their need for it.

Jesus speaks to the church of Philadelphia with no words of correction. He commends them for their abiding relationship with Him through His Spirit and His Word, and makes copious references to the Old and New Testament to clarify very personal and intimate details about all that their continued fellowship with produce in their lives.

1. The most faithful Christians are those who do everything they can with what little they have.
2. An abiding relationship with Jesus is never more evidenced than their regard for His Word.
3. Our only security with God is through the Son.

As the rich young ruler departs, Jesus' disciples remain. They ask what they have to gain for what they've given up in order to follow Jesus, and His answer is one we need to take to heart if we're to remember what motivates us to live the Christian life. Not only is knowing Jesus its own reward, but God knows how to give us rewards for our sacrifices that will last forever.

1. God cannot give us a treasure greater than Himself because such a thing doesn't exist.
2. God is emotionally invested in how we respond to His offer of a personal relationship with Him.
3. God knows how to reward us for the things He's done in and through us.

Jesus speaks to the church in Sardis about their negligence and forgetting their responsibilities as a church. While they called themselves a church, they weren't functioning like one. And with copious references to the Old and New Testament, He reminds them of what they have and will continue to have as a result of coming back to an abiding relationship with Him.

1. Sardis was a city known for taking their wealth and ease for granted, and it got them conquered three times.
2. Sardis wasn't fulfilling their responsibilities as a church as was the equivalent of a corpse in God's eyes.
3. Sardis still had faithful people in it who simply remembered what it means to be a Christian and lived accordingly.