Gulf Coast Community Church - Sunday Sermons

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Orthodoxy, often talked about by students of the faith, refers to soundness of faith, which is often boiled down to belief in the right points of truth. As important as that is, we cannot overlook the importance of orthopraxy… right practice. John, in our text today, wants us to understand that orthopraxy, sound practice of the faith, is essential to orthodoxy. In fact, without right practice there is no right doctrine for one cannot know God if they do not love.

In other words, you cannot know without practicing. To know without practicing is to deceive oneself. Put another way: Orthopraxy and orthodoxy are inseparable. When Paul wrote the Philippians, he was not merely wanting to inform them as to how a Christian should live, the goal of his letter was that they live that way. … that Euodia and Syntyche would stop their quarreling. They could not “know what Paul meant” without reconciling.

In our 1 John 4:7-16, John shows us why “Love one another,” is not merely an implication of the Gospel, but is essential to the Gospel itself.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/11/20201101.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

There are several superpower tests you can take on the internet to determine what your superpower is. This morning I took the one put out by the Des Moines Area Community College. According to them, heroes aren’t born, they’re made with internet quizzes. It turns out that my superpower is invisibility. Many such tests target an audience of kids and are for fun; others are intended for corporate interviewing and impact your employment.

In John 3:19—4:6, John wants the faithful believers who have remained in the faith, resisted the lies of the false teachers, and labored to love one another to know their real superpower. The center of our superpower is not in us, however, but in God who is our Father who dwells in us by the Spirit of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Why do we need a superpower? John identifies two problems that the disciples in his churches battled. Arguably they are battles that all believers have. The first problem is that our hearts condemn us. The second, the enemy wants to deceive us. John’s solution? That God is greater in specific ways that speaks to each of these.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/10/20201025.pdf

Speaker: Ryan Carver

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/10/20201018.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Friday, after prayer I was looking for a place to work on my sermon and fill my stomach. I walked into a diner and from a distance I immediately recognized someone. This fellow was sitting with two people I had never met but immediately recognized as family members. In fact, I would quickly think, “brother and father” to this person. Why? Because they looked so much alike. (I think it turned out to be brother and uncle.)

Earlier in the week I saw an ad for a new movie involving a father and his adult daughter. That’s about all you see in the trailer. What jumped out at me was the fact that they looked nothing alike. They were cast for their audience-draw potential, not for an authentic representation of a real-life relationship.

I began to wonder what casting directors are thinking when they cast people as family members. We’ve gotten so used to this in movies, we don’t even think about it. John the apostle wants us to understand that as children of God we aren’t cast for our audience-draw capabilities, or for even our great acting skills. There is a certain family-likeness that is essential. In fact, John would have us know how to distinguish real family from a fake.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/10/20201011.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Last week we learned that we are in the last hour and must live our lives accordingly. The temptation, of course, is to think that we have plenty of time… no need to get ready now. John wants the disciples in his churches to eagerly anticipate Christ’s return. Will they be ashamed when He comes? Can they have confidence when He comes?

John wants these disciples to be in a position to be confident and unashamed at the appearing of Christ. According to John, how we live will determine whether we will be ashamed or confident. And the family we are in will determine how we live.

This week we will explore 1 John 2:28—3:9. This text is about what it means to be in the family of God: both its privileges and responsibilities. John tells us why we are accepted in God’s family and why we are not in the world.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/10/20201004.pdf

Speaker: Peter Stonecipher

Many of us have wondered how we might spend our time if we were given a diagnosis which left us with only a few months to live. Would we travel to exotic places we’ve always dreamed of visiting? Would we methodically check items off our “bucket list”? Would we spend as much time as possible with friends and family? Would we quietly go about our lives as if nothing had changed?

In 1 John 2:15-29, the Apostle John shockingly lets his readers (and us) know that on the stage of history “it’s the last hour”. Jesus has ascended into heaven, but he is surely coming again soon. But John doesn’t leave us as God’s people wondering how we should spend our time in “the last hour”.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/09/20200927.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Julia Buckley writes about one of the greatest disappointments in her life:

“They’re here!” called one of our group, as everyone scrambled to put on snow boots, four extra layers and grab cameras…. Our host slammed his laptop shut, [rushing] us out of the door. ‘She is here,’ he said to us with Confucian wisdom, leading us round the side of his house. ‘Aurora.’

Julia Buckley was greatly disappointed because the reality didn’t live up to the fanfare. Not that it never would have, but it didn’t that day.

Many Jews who had waited a lifetime in hopes of seeing the Messiah, the new age, the dawning light of new creation, what they saw might have felt a bit more like “a grey streak, arcing across the sky. It wasn’t green. It wasn’t purple. It wasn’t dancing, or prancing.” Have you been disappointed with the new creation? Do others look at the church with disappointment?

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/09/20200920.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

During the Kosovo war (1998-1999), commenting on the rage experienced by victims of the war who had been robbed of not only their possessions but their life’s work, a NY Times journalist asks, “Can such a deep hurt ever heal?”

In response, an Albanian newspaper editor related a story to the journalist: “There was a naughty boy whose father would hammer a nail into a piece of wood every time his son did something wrong. One day, the boy asked why, and when it was explained, the boy decided he would behave better. Each time he did something good, his father would remove a nail from the board. Eventually, all the nails came out.” The man paused and then preceded to the story’s moral. “Yes, the nails were gone,” he said. “But the holes always remained.”

Sin leaves holes! Continued sin keeps making holes, harming or destroying people. Just pulling nails won’t do! (And no, good deeds don’t cancel sin.)

This story provides an analogy (and all analogies fall apart at some point) that might help us understand this week’s text (1 John 2:1-6). The apostle John aims to keep us from putting nails in the board, gives us hope when we do, and calls us to join God in the task of restoring the wood to a place in which its holes are filled.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/09/20200913.pdf

Speaker: Rob Mastry

Some 500 or so years ago, a law school dropout and young philosopher got caught in a thunderstorm on his way back to school from a trip home to visit his family. With lightning crashing all around him, and no prospect of refuge, he trembled in fear. Nearly petrified, the philosophy student cried out in prayer. It was in that moment that the young man vowed to abandon his pursuits and join the monastery, if only he might be saved from the terrific calamity.

He imminently made good on his covenant and joined the Augustinian order. There he learned ancient languages a studied the sacred texts. As he continued his study of the bible, his understanding of God, and the work of Christ Jesus began to take shape. The Spirit of our Lord moved within him, and his life was forever changed.

God’s Word has the power to create the universe and will one day recreate it. It can destroy cities and restore them. It can transform our lives, building us into the city of God.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/09/20200906.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Christian community (fellowship, koinonia) is predicated on forgiveness—the forgiveness of God for our sins. We are a people who have been rescued and still need rescue from sin. When John sets out to communicate the Gospel he heard from Christ, this is where he begins.

Neal Plantinga, in his book (which I highly recommend) “Not the Way it was Meant to Be,” commenting on our text, writes, “God is perfectly just, holy, and good. According to the massed testimony of Scripture, God therefore hates sin. God outlaws sin, judges it, redeems people from it, forgives it, and suffers to do so.” (74)

Those truths are at the heart of the Gospel. When we look to the beginning of the Gospel message, they are essential. They are both scary and wonderful at the same time.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2020/08/20200830.pdf