CrossWalk - Cross Culture Church RDU

Question, what's the difference between Christianity and virtually every other religion in the world? Answer, other religions are works based, meaning your salvation is obtained through what you do, while Christianity claims that salvation is a free gift of God given to those who commit their lives to Him. So for the follower of Jesus, does that mean that our salvation has nothing to do with work? The answer may surprise you. While salvation is a free gift from God, the Apostle Paul informs the church in Philippi that it's imperative that they "work out their salvation." Just exactly what that means, and what it doesn't mean is part of what Pastor Clay has to share with us today.

As we continue our 'Heartbeat' series through the book of Philippians, we come to a part of the book where the Apostle Paul stresses the importance of having unity in the community, the body of Christ. Most of us have heard about or experienced church disunity and the results usually aren't good. Worst of all, God is not glorified when His followers are not unified. As you'll hear Pastor Clay say in today's message, having unity is important for all of our relationships. Fortunately for us, the Apostle Paul gives us a model to look at to show us what is necessary for us to have unity.

We're in week 4 of a series entitled, "Heartbeat," based upon the New Testament book of Philippians. Today we come to the end of chapter 1 as the Apostle Paul begins to give instructions to the church at Philippi and to us as well. What he has to say about suffering may seem hard for us to accept, but as we're learning how to make Christ our heartbeat, we're discovering the key to not only enduring suffering, but actually considering it a privilege.

Circumstances...do they every get you down? Most of us would have to say "yes," however, God has called us to rise above our circumstances. How do we do that when, from our perspective, everything looks bad? The Apostle Paul didn't allow his perspective to change his priority and because he didn't, he was able to walk through his circumstances with the joy that God brings to a person who is trusting in Him. Maybe you're at a place in your life where your circumstances seem overwhelming to you. If so, today's message will be especially important for you.

The Apostle Paul's heartbeat, what mattered to him the most of anything, was Jesus Christ and no where is that more evident that in the book of Philippians. Most of us understand that if we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, He should be the heartbeat of our lives as well but in the busy world in which we live is that just a pipe dream? Is it really possible for the driving force of our life to be Christ? Discovering that exciting truth is what this series and today's message is all about.

Some people would say that their family is the most important thing in their life while others might point to their job or maybe a sport or a hobby as the thing that really gets them going. Whatever it is, it's the heartbeat of their life, but for the follower of Jesus our heartbeat is something different. Today, we're starting a new series entitled, "Heartbeat," and it's based on the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians. As you'll hear Pastor Clay say, if you're a follower of Jesus, you already know that our heartbeat should be Christ. Family, jobs and hobbies aren't bad, they're just not enough and as we'll discover in this series, God has so much more in store for us.

Happy endings, everybody loves it when the story turns out good, but getting to the happy ending doesn't mean there aren't some bumps along the way. Today we come to the end of our series entitled, 'Life, Love, Legacy - The Story of Ruth.' Pastor Clay has walked us through three love relationships, Naomi and Ruth, Boaz and Ruth, and God and us. As we conclude this series today we're going to see how the love relationship between Boaz and Ruth moves forward in God's providence and we're not only going to see the rest of the story, we're also going to see the best of the story.

So far in this series we've learned some valuable truths about life and love, and today we're continuing our look at the love relationship between Ruth and Boaz. Their courtship and the customs of marriage back then sound a little strange to us today, but as Pastor Clay's going to point out in today's message there is a characteristic of love that never changes. We’ve all heard the saying, "All's fair in love and war" but today we’ll see that when it comes to love, God has a different standard.

Love, few things come as easy to us and yet seem so hard to maintain. With marital relationships failing at an alarming rate it seems that what we need is a better understanding of what love looks like. Today we're taking a look at the love relationship between Ruth and Boaz. Some of the customs of those days may seem a little strange to us, but the characteristics of love that we find in their relationship are just as important for relationships today.

Today we're continuing our series entitled, Life, Love, Legacy: The Story of Ruth. As we've already seen in this series, love is a central theme in the book of Ruth and today Pastor Clay is taking us to just one verse in the story of Ruth, but it's a verse that beautifully and powerfully demonstrates the love of a mother.