Crossroads - Weekend Messages

The Christmas season is trademarked with flashing lights, frosty weather, too many sweets, and lots of joy. If we aren’t careful, we can fill our schedules with to-do’s and have-to’s, as opposed to making room for what’s most important. When we look at the birth of Jesus, we see that God can use the most unique circumstances to bring forth His divine purposes. This Advent season, let's choose to intentionally Make Room for Jesus no matter what comes our way.

The advent season, in the life of the people of God, is all about waiting. We are awaiting the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Let’s be honest, most people despise waiting. There is a reason that one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit is patience. Biblical patience isn’t only about us waiting, but also how we behave as we wait. Since we are embracing this Unique Season, it is a powerful opportunity for us to learn how to wait well for the purposes of God to come to pass.

As a husband of almost 19 years, I find lists from my wife extremely helpful. I sometimes wish everything had a comprehensive list of to-dos to help me stay focused and on task. Often, I find myself searching the scriptures for a list of steps to take to follow after Jesus. While Jesus calls us deeper into a more relational approach, His younger half-brother, James, provides us with a helpful inventory of behaviors and actions that are pleasing and acceptable to God in any season of life.

In a world where complaining permeates our conversations, our culture, and our hearts, we can use gratitude as both the healing antidote to what ails us and the weapon that empowers us. But this is not a surface-level “put on a happy face and pretend everything is fine” type of gratitude. This is a gratitude that takes cultivation, long suffering, and surrender; only then can it become a deep well that can’t be impacted by the cynicism and negativity that swirls around us, allowing us to uniquely live lives of gratitude in this holiday season.

Life is full of seasons. Just as the weather changes from season to season, so do our lives. In each season, there are unique blessings and also unique challenges. The key is to learn to trust God in each season. This weekend, we are beginning a brand-new series that will lead us from before Thanksgiving until New Years, as we will look at the uniqueness of the end of the calendar year.

One of the driving passions in the life of Paul the apostle was to bring the gospel of Jesus to Rome. Through all of his journeys, this had been his focus. What is even more extraordinary was that Paul, in writing to the church in Rome, was hoping to use Rome as a jumping-off point to bring the gospel into Spain. At last, here in the final chapter in the book of Acts, Paul arrives in Rome. His trip to Rome was full of peril and hardship, yet Paul never wavered in his resolve to serve Jesus wherever he found himself.

There’s an old saying that goes, “God said it. I believe it. End of story.” This can be easily learned by watching the life of the apostle Paul. Over and over again, in Paul’s life, we see him standing in an unstoppable hope, in the face of dire adversity. That might be most clearly seen in the treacherous journey Paul must take, by boat, from Jerusalem to Rome. Paul knew he was going to make it safely to Rome. But what an adventure getting there!

Sometimes we receive a direction or word from God and it can show up in the least expected ways. As we take the step of faith, we find that our journey leads us into unlikely situations that allow us to increase our trust in God or relinquish our trust in God. As we open Acts 26, we find the continuation of the trial that the apostle Paul is part of. Not only is this scene a confirmation of a prophetic word he received from Jesus, but Paul also sees this as an answer to prayer. Where others would have viewed it with despair, the apostle is full of gratitude to be able to share the Gospel of Jesus with the king and his dignitaries. We learn that though Paul was physically enchained, the hope he found in Christ gave him a new sense of freedom. Join us today as we unpack what it looks like to have an unstoppable faith that is rooted in Christ. 

It’s amazing to see the doors that God opens. But if we are not careful, in our frustration with our circumstances, we often miss the opportunities that are right in front of us. You might think of the misfortune of the apostle Paul to be wasting time in jail. But God was working, in miraculous ways, to make sure the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus was making it to everyone. In Acts 25, we see the amazing ways the Lord orchestrates the fulfillment of His will.

God’s plans are unstoppable. But there are all sorts of twists and turns on the journey. When God saved Paul, He told him that his journey was going to be unique. Now we find Paul imprisoned and he will have the first of what will be a series of trials before Roman officials. Paul does not lament his situation. He chooses to embrace each situation as an opportunity to share the good news about Jesus.