Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

Themes: Evangelism

We live in a fractured world. What can we offer them? Does the church offer a compelling alternative to what the world offers? If so, how so? If not, what needs to change?

As Christians in America in 2024, how we live during this election year might say more about our faith than anything else. That might sound too strong (and maybe it is). However, if followers of Jesus cannot show a compelling alternative to the rancor and venom permeating America’s social conversation why should anyone listen to us?

The mission of God doesn’t stop for election years and we don’t get time-off to follow another king. As a community of disciples, we must demonstrate that we have a higher allegiance—an allegiance to a king who achieved His rule through suffering and laying down his life. What does allegiance to this king look like?

Join us as we explore the hope that we have and how that is relevant to being people of God’s mission.

To become a people of God’s mission, we must be a prophetic people. To be clear, I do not mean by that a people who prophesy (though that might be a legitimate use of the phrase). I mean a church that first sees clearly (the prophets were known as seers—see-ers) the idols of our age and rid our own lives of those idols.

The hardest idols to root out of our lives are those we have reimagined as Christian. Just as the Israelites in the wilderness made a golden calf and named it Yahweh, declaring it had brought them out of Egypt, so believers through the ages have renamed various idols as God or Christian. We must see these for what they are.

The seductive nature of these idols combined with their ability to masquerade as Christian virtue require supernatural discernment. Join us as we explore the idols of our own making as well as the connection between idolatry and mission.

There is often a grave inconsistency in the lives of those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus. This is not unique to the Christian faith. It was certainly a significant factor in Israel’s community in the Old Testament. People today might call it hypocrisy, which indeed it is.

Not hypocrisy in the traditional sense of the word— “professing to be one thing and living as another” —but a deeper hypocrisy. It might be described as “freely receiving an outrageous mercy and not proactively extending it to others.”

So far (and I am almost finished), the word “hypocrisy” has not made it into my sermon. It probably won’t. However, we will be speaking about how God’s redemptive acts toward us must inform our lives. Redemption must lead to redemptive living. We will see how this is a pattern both in the Exodus and in the Cross of the Lord Jesus.

Join us in worship as we continue discovering how we start becoming people of God’s mission.

Text: 1 Cor 10:23-33; Col 3:12-17
Headings:
1. Context Matters
2. Relationships Matter
3. Everything Matters

Text: James 1:27

Themes: Gospel Mercy as an essential of Being a People of God’s Mission

The Bible tells us we are a kingdom of priests and a holy people. What does that mean?

Since the Reformation conversation about that has largely focused on the priesthood of all believers, but while that is a thing, it isn’t really what that phrase in Scripture (Exodus 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9) is about. That phrase envisions a whole community of priests.

Why does God want a priesthood and what does that have to do with His mission? And why does He want a community to do it instead of a bunch of individuals? What does a community require that a collection of individuals doesn’t?

Join us this Sunday in worship as we seek answers to these questions in our continuing series: Becoming People of God’s Mission.

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday which is sadly one of the more neglected days on the church calendar. For some “Pentecost” is merely a reference to one particular strain of Christians that emphasize emotionalism (as described pejoratively by their detractors). It can bring to mind debates about supernatural gifts of the Spirit. But Pentecost is so much bigger than this.

To grasp the significance of Pentecost we will explore the events of Acts 2 this Sunday setting out to answer 3 things. First, what was Pentecost before it was Pentecost? (I.e. what was Jewish Pentecost in the 1st century, before it became known as the Christian event on the church calendar?) Second, how does Pentecost help us understand Paul? And finally, how did Pentecost change everything?

Join us in worship as we celebrate this momentous day in the history of God’s people.

Themes: Life and abortion

As a pastor, it’s not uncommon to be asked the question, “What is the church’s mission?” It’s a fair question but I am not sure if it is the right question. At least, I don’t think it is the right question for the church to be asking itself.

The right question for the church to ask itself is, “What is God’s mission?” Once we find out what that is, we certainly ought to do everything we can by His grace to join right in. In fact, Genesis 1–2  tell us that we were made to be God’s representatives in His mission in the world.

What is God’s original mission? What is God’s redemptive and restorative mission? How do the two relate? What is our role in them?

Join us this Sunday as we begin a new series “Becoming People of God’s Mission” and explore the answers to those questions right from the start.