Courage Church

series: Romans

title: 26 Slaves & Sons

passage: Romans 8:12-17

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: July 21, 2019

series: Romans

title: 25 Spirit & Flesh

passage: Romans 8:1-11

teacher: Austin Young

date: July 14, 2019

series: Romans

title: 24 Law & Spirit

passage: Romans 7:13-25, Romans 8:1-4

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: July 7, 2019

series: Romans

title: 23 Bound and Released

teachers: Drew Borowsky & James Centeno

date: June 30, 2019

scriptures: Romans 7:4-12

series: Romans

title: 22 Bound & Released

teachers: Jacob & Dawn Bender

scriptures: Romans 7:1-4

date: June 23, 2019

series: Romans

title: 21 Justification & Glorification

teachers: Jacob & Dawn Bender

date: June 16, 2019 (Father’s Day)

series: Romans

title: 20 Justification & Glorification

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: June 9, 2019

scriptures: Romans 5:20-21, Romans 6:1-14

My kids last day of school was this week. Fiona’s last day was Wednesday, and Milly and Brooklyn finished Friday. And on Friday, I was driving in the car with Fiona to pick up Milly and Brooklyn, and I was showing Fiona the song “Redemption Songs” by Bob Marley. 

“oh pirates yes they rob I, 

sold I to the merchant ship” —-

and she started singing alone. Then she stopped for a moment and said to me:

and I thought about it for a moment… I ran the words over in my head, and then responded… “well, no. No, I don’t consider it a sad song.”

to which she responded: it sounds like a sad song.

and I said to her: to me, it is a hopeful song.

and she said “well what is it about? about someone who gets robbed?”

like… how is that hopeful?

And I explained to her:

and of course… five year old Fiona… we all know what the next question was…

“What is a Revolution?” 

and again, I had to think about it… about how to communicate it to a five year old, and so I sort of took a couple of the lines in the song and added some more to it… and I said: 

“it is when there is something in our world THAT ISN’T as it should be… a dominating thought… a controlling thing that is doing something that it shouldn’t… and enough people decide “we aren’t going to stand aside and watch this happen anymore… we aren’t going to let it be this way anymore.” 

and instead of waiting for the solution, we are going to sacrifice whatever it is that we have the potential of losing… in order that we can be a part of the solution ourselves. 

THAT’S A REVOLUTION.

and that is what we are called to in our world.

series: Romans

title: 19 Adam & Jesus

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: June 2, 2019

scriptures: Romans 5:15-21, Psalm 8, Ephesians 4:24

series: Romans

title: 18 Adam & Jesus

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: May 26, 2019

scripture: Romans 5:12-14

Have you ever been given a rule, something that you were told you have to make sure you DON’T DO?

naturally… of course, the natural human instinct is going to be to WANT TO DO THAT THING! And that leads some people to BREAKING THE RULE, and it leads others (people who are more like me probably) to figuring out a way that they can get as close to breaking it as they can without breaking it. 

you know who I am talking about… the people who are the reason we have to make additional rules because they do things that we never even think of doing!

In this sermon, we explore a story about a time before the law was given. But even before there was a law, there was one specific command, and even that one thing proved to be impossible for the man who represented all of humanity.

series: Romans

title: 17 Reconciliation & Salvation

date: May 19, 2019

teacher: Jacob Bender

scripture: Romans 5:10-11

Psalm 23 is a what is considered to be a Psalm of thanksgiving… and most people find this line to be out of place with the other parts… such as “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me and comfort me…”  Then he says “you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies… and my cup overflows.” - in other words… you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies… AND THATS AWESOME. I AM SUPER STOKED ON THAT. I am REJOICING IN THE FACT… I AM BOASTING IN THE FACT that a table has been prepared for me in the presence of my enemies. 

and the reason is INCREDIBLE. 

The Hebrew word that David uses there for table is the word “shulchan” - 

it is used to describe A KING’S TABLE… something grand… something important… 

and from that word we get a word that is still to this day used and sometimes even practiced in Arabic culture, and that word is “sulha”  which means: “A MEAL BETWEEN ENEMIES WITH THE PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION.” 

it was a last-ditch-effort before a feud between two parties got so out of hand that it is likely they would never go back. 

and what would happen was, they would set the table for their enemy, and they would share a meal together… and both parties would enter this meal with the understanding that WE WILL NOT LEAVE THIS TABLE UNTIL WE HAVE COME TO WHATEVER TERMS NEED TO BE COME TO FOR THERE TO BE RECONCILIATION.