CrossLife Church

Individualism and autonomy are the highest values of our day. Your body, choice, identity, and your way are the only rules. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works, nor is that the way to a blessed and happy life. All the paths that you can follow are not equal in safety, provisions, or fulfillment. 

As we begin our summer series in Psalm 1, we will explore the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. Psalm 1 is a fitting introduction to the overall book. Psalms served as the hymnal of the Israelites. It is the longest book in the Bible and the book on which the New Testament writers quoted the most. 

Abraham Lincoln once shared with a friend his deep appreciation for the book of Psalms, saying, “They are the best. I find something in them for every day of the year.”

Worldliness

Have you ever been in a building when a fire alarm went off, and nobody seemed to be concerned? The alarm is blaring, and lights are flashing, and everyone is acting as if they are having a stroll in a sunny park. In those moments, you assume everyone must know something you do not know, and it appears there is no visible fire or smell of smoke, so you carry on by yourself.

The Bible is full of verses that serve as vital warning signs to help us safely navigate the course of our lives. Many that should cause us to stop and consider the nature of their warnings. However, it is easy to grow too accustomed to seeing them and then dismiss them as no longer relevant to us and our time. We ignore them and keep walking.  

Few verses in the Bible seem more out of step with our lives than 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things of the world." Why would God place us in this world and then ask us not to love it? It seems like a parent giving their child a giant bowl of ice cream and saying Do not enjoy it!

Discerning and wise followers of Jesus must learn to recognize the subtle seduction of the world. Worldliness is an alluring Sirene’s song that can draw in the seemingly strongest among us, only to wreck our lives like ships on a shallow reef. We would be foolish to travel these waters without looking to the map of God's word to chart us safely through the dangers. 

As we stand at the threshold of a new year, Philippians 3:12–16 invites us to take an honest look at where we are and where we’re going in our walk with Christ. Paul admits he hasn’t yet “arrived,” but his life bursts with forward motion—pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him. The Christian life is not passive; it’s a pursuit. Growth in holiness, deeper fellowship with Christ, and steadfast obedience require a heart that refuses to settle for spiritual comfort zones. Like Paul, we are called to run with purpose, eyes fixed on the prize of knowing Christ more fully.

This passage also challenges us to let go of what lies behind—past failures, disappointments, or even successes that can hold us back—and to strain toward what’s ahead. The new year is a gracious opportunity to align our priorities with God’s calling, to make progress one faithful step at a time. In 2026, may our focus be simple yet powerful: to press on, to grow up into maturity, and to pursue the upward call of God in Christ Jesus with renewed determination and joy.

One of the most fascinating insights about this current moment in our society is that people have never been more anxious and fearful about their everyday lives, while surprisingly confident or indifferent about their spiritual state. People seem to be very presumptuous about the possibility of standing before God and finding that God would have any reason to judge them harshly. Most people seem to assume that if there is a God, they have always heard that He is loving and a loving God will be glad to receive them into heaven. 

This was also a problem towards the end of the first century. John addresses 3 false ideas that many were claiming (1 John 1:6, 8, 10).

Lie #1 - We can have fellowship with God while walking in darkness.

Lie #2 - Our actions don't make us sinful but good.

Lie #3 - Our sinful actions don't reveal anything about our true nature.  

In John's first letter (1 John), he begins by confirming the Deity and humanity of Jesus (1 John 1:1-4) as the second person of the Triune God. Then in verse 5, John describes God with the words, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." With these words, John reveals astonishing truths about the nature of God. If God there is no darkness in God; what about the darkness in us?

Join us this Sunday as we go deeper into a new series on the letter of 1 John. 

There is no more profound a question one may consider than what is God? Is God a person, a place, an animal, or a concept? There have been more attempts than one can count of people creating statues and forms to provide them with an object to represent a god or gods to worship and appease. However, there is an irony in men creating something with their minds and hands by which to represent their creator. 

The God of the Bible is not fashioned and formed with human hands, nor is he an esoteric concept beyond human knowledge. God is knowable and has revealed Himself to the part of His creation He has made in His image. The Bible is not silent, nor is it shy in revealing God to humanity. 

In John's first letter (1 John), he begins by confirming the Deity and humanity of Jesus (1 John 1:1-4) as the second person of the Triune God. Then in verse 5 John describes God with the words, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." With these words, John reveals astonishing truths about the nature of God. Join us this Sunday as we go deeper into a new series on the letter of 1 John. 

In a world where truth and trends are always changing and ever-evolving, it is impossible to know the way the best way to live your life. God’s Word is unchanging, providing a fixed reference point in which to measure. 

In a postmodern world, all meaning is relative and self-determined. This may seem freeing, but it is the equivalent of trying to navigate an ocean in a boat made of water, in a rainstorm, and trying to escape the water with a ladder made of liquid. There is no fixed point of reference and nothing to hold onto.

By contrast, God's Word provides a reference point in which to measure and build our lives.

As the preacher writes his conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12, he employs the congregation of Israel to remember their creator. His final challenge is to fear God and recognize that God is our Shepherd and desires to lead us. Are you willing to follow?

Certain questions are universal and timeless. Regardless of one's culture, nation, or family, every person will have an inner longing to answer these questions. Those questions are "Who am I?" and "Where did I come from?" How a person answers these questions will ultimately guide how they live their life. This in essence, is one's worldview. 

What is the basis for your view about life, family, evil, sin, death, business, and purpose? As one grows, learns, and experiences life, they develop an understanding of how the world works and how to navigate it. This naturally shapes one's view or perspective on life, meaning, purpose, and even suffering. Much of our worldview is adopted from our parents, peers, teachers, and many other points of influence from media, experience, etc....

As the preacher writes his conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12, he employs the congregation of Israel to remember their creator. His final challenge is not to consider the end of their life or reflect on the beginning, but to reflect and consider their origin. When you consider whose you are, the question of who you are begins to come into focus. When you know your Creator, the uncertainty and difficulties of life suddenly start to fade away.   

One of the greatest fallacies of our day is short-term thinking. Our culture has cultivated and indoctrinated the masses of society to focus their happiness on their current circumstances. The questions we have been tutored to ask are: What makes me happy? What identity would make me happy?”What relationships make me happy? 

When people struggle to find satisfaction in their current state, circumstance, or relationships, they just go look somewhere else. When a person isn’t happy, it must be the fault of their circumstances or other people, never the result of their own choices. 

The Ancient Preacher of Ecclesiastes 11 warns, Consider your days, especially when you are young. Live with the end of your days in sight. 

   “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.”  (Eccles. 11:9)

Those who live for the moment with short-term thinking will find their hearts vexed as their youth fades and the days of older age set in.

The Bible is the most talked-about book in which the most opinionated people have never read. The Bible is full of life-giving and eternal truths that are profoundly transformative to anyone seeking spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness. The Bible is also full of timeless and universal wisdom in areas of science, biology, botany, anthropology, agriculture, economics, and many other areas of practical life.  

The Bible is not just a spiritual book, nor is it just a book of rules and regulations. The Bible is full of practical insights into everyday life. In Ecclesiastes 11, the Preacher teaches about the importance of diversification in investing, handling setbacks, and avoiding paralysis by analysis. If you want common sense in times of uncommon foolishness and gimmicks, you will find answers in Ecclesiastes 11. 

The earlier in life you start investing, the greater you will see the exponential growth of compound interest. The longer you wait to begin investing for the future, the more you will limit your potential for exponential gains. This is true both financially and spiritually. 

In his book The Intellectuals, Paul Johnson does a deep dive into Jean Jache Rousseau, Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other leading thinkers and cultural elites of Modern Western Civilization. These are the heroes of leftist elites and are revered for their secular philosophies and intellects. Paul Johnson's work is remarkable because he shifts the focus away from their writings and onto the logical conclusion of their thinking, their lives.  

In a lofty speech honoring the life of Rousseau, it was Robespierre who said he was "the one man who, through the loftiness of his soul and the grandeur of his character, showed himself worthy of the role of teacher of mankind." He went on to praise him for "transforming our morals, customs, laws, feelings, and habits." 

What Paul Johnson discovered by examining their lives was a wake of destruction. They denied God and everything holy and eternal. They rejected established morals and ethics, replacing them with their own versions of morality, ethics, and ideas about society. Yet, their own personal lives, their families, children, women, relationships, and finances were a train wreck. 

"A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,

But a fool’s heart to the left.

Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,

and he says to everyone that he is a fool."

-Ecclesiastes 10:2-3 

Solomon (the Preacher) calls these intellectuals fools. In Ecclesiastes 10, he describes the dangers and maps out some of the traps that wise people will want to know to avoid the path of the fools. Consider the examples in our culture that you allow to be trend setters or influencers in your life. Are you following fools or people of wisdom?