“There are times that we as Christians don’t grasp the seriousness of our own sin.”

“At the core of every problem in the world today… is sin.”

“If our options are to deal with our sin or to minimize our sin, I get why we choose to minimize. And here’s why: as a fallen people living in a fallen world, this is our natural reaction to sin. Ever since the Garden of Eden, the reaction to sin has been to justify, to minimize, and to shift blame. But for those of us who are called to follow Jesus, we are not called to live in the natural, but in the supernatural.”

“In the spirit, we do not justify our sin. We own, confess, and repent of our sin. We don’t compare the scale of our sin with another person’s sin or play the whataboutism game because we understand that allsin separates us from God… not just the sins that we tend to find especially heinous.”

“It’s one thing to believe that Jesus came for all people. It’s one thing to believe that Jesus called all people. It’s something completely different to see the spirit of Jesus poured out on a group of people that you never thought possible.”

“Sometimes we believe that unity means that you do you and I’ll do me – it’s all about keeping the peace. We don’t ignore problems for the sake of unity. Unity is not something that is passive – it’s something that is worth fighting for.”

“The biggest threat to the church today is Christians who are not acting in accordance with the Gospel. The biggest threat to the church today is people who claim the name of Jesus but live a life that looks absolutely nothing like Him. The biggest threat to the church today is NOT someone or something ‘out there.’ It isn’t this evil, blatant opposition to Christian values. The biggest threat to the church today is the church, when the church is not acting in accordance with the Gospel.”

“There are an endless number of things in this world that can separate us - but the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus can bring us together, and it supersedes them all.”

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

LCC Student Minister Trey Hardimon starts a new sermon series this week, "It Wasn't Me."

There's little in this world that is more beautiful and life-giving than a good and Godly mom, because when it really comes down to it, the attributes of a good mom come straight from the heart of God. Andy shares a special message for this Mother's Day, "Generation to Generation."

“Sometimes the greatest pain brings about the greatest reminders of how blessed we’ve been.”

“There’s little in this world that’s more beautiful and life-giving than a good mom.”

“So much of what makes a great mom comes straight from the heart of God, and we can learn so much about the heart of God through a great mom.”

“There’s little in this world that is more beautiful and life-giving than a good and Godly mom, because when it really comes down to it, the attributes of a good mom come straight from the heart of God.”

Andy shares a powerful sermon called "To the Streets." As you listen to this week's message, consider the following two questions. One - when is the last time you undeniably saw the work of the Holy Spirit in our around you? Two - right now, right where you are - what does the Holy Spirit want you to do? Let this message challenge you to pray for opportunities to share the hope of Jesus with those around you, and the courage to act whenever the Holy Spirit nudges you.

“So often we feel the nudging of the Holy Spirit, but for some reason, we don’t allow that power to work through us. There are several reasons. Pride, caring too much what other people think, being unfaithful, feeling self-conscious, being too busy.”

“Your job is to point people to Jesus and get out of the way.”

“Even if you’re not where you want to be right now – Jesus says your job is to start right where you are. Don’t wait for a bigger opportunity – start with your home, with your friends, with your neighbors – start with the relationships you already have. Be faithful where you are and when God calls you and leads you in a different direction, then go.”

“Be faithful and fully present where your feet are today. In the Holy Spirit, we are filled with everything that we need to live the life that Jesus desires for us to live. We are given everything we need to do all that Jesus has called us to do.”

“To all of you who are followers of Jesus – you have not received a spirit of timidity, but of boldness and of power. You have received wisdom and discernment to know where to go, and when to go, and when to open your mouth and when to keep your mouth shut. Through the Holy Spirit, we are able to point people to Jesus, to forgive the unforgivable, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We are able to be unified through the Holy Spirit, to be generous and selfless. We are able to worship at all times through the Holy Spirit. If you have accepted Jesus, the presence of God is residing within you and the power of the Holy Spirit is there. The question is – will you listen? Will you respond?”

“Sometimes I fear that we neglect our own neighborhoods in the process of going to all nations. We are ready to go to faraway places to share the hope of Jesus and serve those we encounter, but we are far less eager to do that in the places where we live. We fail to be faithful where our feet are. Whenever we are faithful where we are, it could lead to some very uncomfortable situations and conversations… but it could also be opening the door for Jesus to use us in leading others to Him.”

On Easter Sunday, Andy shares a powerful retelling of the Resurrection and the hope that this event gives each of us today. This event changed the entire course of history… and it can change the entire course of your life, too.

“Yes, they did kill Jesus… but that’s not the end.”

“The very people who spent the most time with Jesus… they completely blew off the initial reports of the Resurrection as nonsense. Foolishness. It just didn’t make sense.”

“For those who don’t believe, the message of the cross just sounds foolish.”

“Whenever you are standing in the presence of the resurrected Christ, suddenly the question ‘why are you so troubled? Why are you so afraid?’ is seen in a brand new light.”

“Christian. Today, you have the same power that raised Christ from the dead living in you. So let me ask you… why are you so troubled? Why are you so afraid?”

“These words were spoken to a group of people who were scared and hiding… but now they were witnesses to an event that changed the entire course of their lives. It changed the entire course of history. And I believe that today, it can change the entire course of your life too. They had given up… but it was not the end.”

“Do I believe that Matthew is a credible eyewitness? Do I believe that Mark truly took the words of Peter and gave us this account? Do I truly believe that Luke thoroughly investigated everything that he said he did? Do I truly believe that John, part of the inner 3 with Jesus, got to experience it all – do I really believe what he said? Do I really believe what Peter had to say?”

“The historical facts of the resurrection – do you believe that it’s true? Because if the answer is yes – or even if the answer is ‘I don’t know’ or you just can’t fully say no – then that means that everything has changed. You have hope when you don’t think you have hope. It means that you can have confidence – true, rooted confidence that the Word of God is true.“

“Jesus died for our sins and was buried… and he rose from the dead and was seen.”

“It’s because of this event that we can know God is personal. We can know that the suffering and pain and even perceived silence is not evidence of God’s absence. The worst thing imaginable happened to the best person to ever live. We can have confidence in the claims of Jesus – about heaven, hell, hope, power. We can know that forgiveness is available. You can know that you are loved by God. You can know that when things look their worst, God is often up to his best. You will never have to face a single moment in your life where you are without hope.”

“Because of this event, you can know that whatever you are facing – Jesus has already conquered.”

Andy concludes our “Easter Eggs” sermon series with the story of the Passover. During Passover, the blood from a lamb without defect was required to satisfy the destroyer… an “Easter egg” to the coming Lamb of God, whose blood paid our debt and who was sacrificed to forgive our sins. You may have heard this message before – don’t miss it. Take a step back and behold – the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin.

“Jesus is at the center of the entire story of scripture.”

“God is a God of the details… not only that, but he is a God who desires obedience. And if we are unwilling to obey in the smaller things, how will we ever obey in the bigger things?”

“I know today that we like to say whenever we’re Christians, ‘yes, I belong to God,’ but do we really understand what that means? If you’re willing to say ‘my life belongs to God,’ that means that God gets to do with your life whatever He sees fit.”

“If God wants to use me in pain… if I belong to God, I have to be ok with God allowing me to live through pain.”

“There’s no way to cancel a debt without payment. There’s only two ways – one is by force. You can force someone to pay a debt. The second way is through forgiveness. For the one who is being forgiven, it may not seem like you’re paying anything… but don’t miss this, the one who’s doing the forgiving is paying an awful lot.”

“When God took his Son up to the top of the mountain to be sacrificed, there was no angel to yell stop.”

“We see in Abraham that there is a debt – because of sin, there is a debt that must be paid. We see through Moses that a substitute can pay that debt. And we see through Jesus that He is the substitute who has paid your debt.

“At the very center of the Christian faith is the bloody death of a helpless victim. This is why we are told to take a step back and to behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. To behold means to think upon – to grasp.”

“This Lamb is the foundation of our hope, of our lives, of our hearts and our minds and yes, our actions.”

“There is nothing natural about forgiveness… but when we behold the Lamb of God, there is no other option. We serve because whenever we don’t stop looking at the Lamb of God, we can’t stop looking at the way he served us. Whenever we think upon the Lamb of God, we can’t help but be moved by the way he obeyed his father even unto death… for you and for me. When we behold, we see that our standing with God has so little to do with us… we see that we are no better than anyone else. It all comes back to the blood of the Lamb.”

LCC Lead Minister Andy Turner continues in week 2 of our “Easter Eggs” sermon series with a passage from Isaiah 53 about the coming Messiah, who was nothing like everyone at the time expected. The suffering servant – Jesus Christ – took the punishment for all of us, not because he deserved it, but because it was God’s plan to restore the effects of sin in a fallen world. Andy challenges us this week not to “do” anything, but to “embrace” an important truth that we sometimes grow complacent about – that Jesus took OUR place.

“The tensions and the division and the brokenness and all of the pain that we experience can be traced back to the fact that we are a fallen people living in a fallen world. However… from the moment that sin entered the world, God’s plan has always been to restore and redeem the effects of sin.”

“Because of sin, the world and humanity have been cursed… but because of Jesus, the curse has been reversed.”

“The foundation of being made right with God is that Jesus Christ took the full punishment that we deserved for our sin, as a substitute in our place.”

“Everyone had a picture in their head of what the Messiah would be… and this was not it.”

“The servant is not suffering because he deserved to suffer, but because he bore the suffering, the shame, the transgressions, the iniquities… he bore the sins of the people. Of us. And none of it was by accident.”

“Jesus did not stumble into the cross. Jesus knew exactly what was taking place. Everything that happened to Jesus was intentional.”

“The death of Jesus was not an accident. It was the purpose and plan of God to restore you and me to a right relationship with Him.”

“All have sinned. All of us are guilty. All of us have turned away to follow our own path. We have all filled the role of our own master and our own treasure. We have all made ourselves our own ruler and our own authority. But in the middle of ‘for all have sinned,’ God was not willing to leave to just leave us in this guilty and condemned condition. He planned to send a suffering servant who would bear our sins, as a substitute for us.”

“A dead Christ does not justify… but a living Christ justifies.”

“Today, my hope isn’t so much that you go and do something. Today, my hope is that you embrace something. Embrace this truth. Jesus took your place, to secure your place.”

“It’s impossible to read Isaiah 53 and not be drawn to the time that Jesus was placed before a number of trials that were nothing short of a mockery. It’s impossible not to think of the rejection that Jesus must have felt whenever he was standing on a stage with Barabbas – this inciter of riots, this murderer, this heinous criminal – and he looks out at the people that he came to save, all shouting at the top of their lungs to release Barabbas in his place. We can’t miss the rejection that Jesus must have felt. We can’t miss the brutality of the flogging… the lashes, the blood and the gore. It’s impossible not to think about the insults that Jesus heard, that were hurled his way… the spit that was running down his face… the nails that were placed into his wrists and his feet… the sword that pierced his side. It’s impossible to read these words and not think of the cross.”

“Jesus took your place. Don’t you dare be bored by this. Do you care? Does it matter to you? Jesus took your place. You deserved death. Jesus took your place… to secure your place.”

LCC Discipleship Minister Daniel Koch begins a new sermon series this week about “Easter Eggs” hidden in the Bible. In week 1, we discuss the story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis. Daniel reminds us of the “first Good News” shared in the Bible, in Gen. 3:15, when God said to the serpent, “He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” When all seems overwhelming and we are surrounded by chaos, we can remember this promise – Satan may deliver a powerful blow, but Jesus will always overcome and claim the victory.

“God created humans with the ability to choose right from wrong. No other beings possessed this gift. And it is a gift – it allows us to demonstrate a response of obedience, which is God’s very love language.”

“Satan uses the same approach with you and I today – testing how well we really know God’s command. He knows if you don’t know God’s command, it’s easy to twist certain things.”

“If you want to see somebody completely destroy their life, start by undermining true authority in their life. If you want people to rebel, begin by undermining true reality and a true sense of right and wrong.”

“Chaos begins with undermined authority.”

“Even worse than tempting someone to do wrong that knows what they are doing is wrong… is the ability to tempt someone to believe that what is wrong is actually right. The only way to do that is to destroy the foundation of God’s authority, first and foremost – the only true, objective, moral authority.”

“You don’t have to live very long to see how quickly the definitions of right and wrong change in our society.

“The problem with popular consensus, and anything else we might fill that void with, is that it isn’t consistent. It always changes. But as Christians, we hold to a constant, true, objective source of moral authority.”

“Satan plays on our vulnerability – that when we don’t know God well, he sees that as an opportunity to come in and take hold.”

“There is truth in the Word of God and when we know it and we study it, then we’re able to know the counterfeit lies that are constantly bombarding us.”

“When authority is undermined, the next thing that happens is that clarity is replaced by confusion.”

“When the standard of what is right and wrong is ignored, there is no end to the claims of truth that seek to fill the void.”

“In the midst of facing the daily effects of a broken and fallen world… when the chaos around you feels too great and too overwhelming… God whispers. When all you see is chaos, look to the cross.”

Andy concludes our “Seven Words” series with a message about Jesus’s words to the lukewarm church of Laodicea and a challenge to all believers to truthfully answer, “What are your expectations …whenever you come to church? Or whenever you open up scripture? Do you expect to encounter Jesus? Do you expect to be convicted… or do you expect nothing?”

“There is something so beautiful about the prayer, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Even if you have a pantry full of food, you are still completely dependent upon Jesus. Even if you have all kinds of zero’s in your bank account, you are still dependent on Jesus. Whenever we miss that, it will lead us down a path to becoming lukewarm, useless Christians.”

“’Give us this day our daily bread’ doesn’t mean that we’re worried about tomorrow’s bread today – tomorrow will enough worries for itself. Instead, we are solely and completely dependent for Jesus to provide for us to be able to make it through this day.”

“Sometimes, there’s just nothing nice that can be said… and the most loving thing you can do is to tell the truth.”

“The door that Jesus is knocking on… is the door to his own house. His church. And the church has pushed him out.”

“Repentance isn’t something that you do just one time, whenever you come and accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Repentance isn’t just this single moment in history, but repentance is constant. Repentance is the awareness of where you’ve gone astray, when you’ve gone astray, where you’ve compromised, and where you’ve put your desires, your agenda, and your wants before Jesus and his desires, agendas and wants for you. It’s when we stop repenting as Christians that our hearts begin to grow cold. It’s when we stop that we begin to become lukewarm. It’s when we stop that we begin to become useless Christians. Let me ask again… what are your expectations?”

“If you’re always right… if you’re always defending, always blaming, always judging, always excusing yourself… if you’re always overlooking your own errors, your own faults and your own failures… if Jesus never disagrees with you… if you’re never challenged or convicted by scripture, then two things are true. Number one, you’re on the fast track to becoming lukewarm. And number two, you’re not even following Jesus. You’re following yourself and pretending that it’s Jesus to make yourself feel good. The way back is repentance. The way back is found in the cross of Jesus Christ.”

“The Christian life is not solely about living a certain way. The Christian life is about encountering, meeting, and surrendering to Jesus, and allowing the way we live to flow through Him.”

People often ask “what is God’s will for my life?” Andy shares some lessons that we can learn from the church in Philadelphia, as we continue in week 6 of this sermon series. Let this week’s message challenge you to move beyond asking for direction as you learn to recognize God’s voice and walk through the open doors He has already placed in your life.

“You look at the world, and you see it falling apart at the seams, and you become so frustrated because you don’t feel like there’s anything you can do. May I remind you… that there is so much strength in your weakness.”

“The resurrected Jesus Christ… loves you. Keep that in mind as you face opposition, because then you will be able to hold on. You will know that he is with you. So don’t give up.”

“Jesus opens doors. Jesus presents us with open doors – every day. All the time. Minute by minute, hour by hour, to be able to fulfill this Great Commission.”

“We have a promise that Jesus will continually open doors… but so often, we still try to get through the door in our own way. We try to force our way through doors that are locked. We become obsessed with trying to figure things out on our own. But Jesus says ‘I will open the door – I know what’s best. I will open it at the right time and you can trust me to walk through.’”

“It’s not that we don’t need to worry about what God’s will is for our life. Instead of worrying solely about knowing God’s will for our life, may we worry more about learning to recognize His voice.”

“Honestly, nearly everything that you need to know about God’s will for your life… has already been said to you. You just have to walk through the open doors.”

“Walk through open doors. That’s what fulfilling the Great Commission looks like. Jesus doesn’t just open doors – Jesus wants us to walk throughthe doors.”

“Some of you today – you need to quit knocking on the door. It’s not that you don’t know what God is calling you to do… it’s just that you don’t want to do it.”

“We know that Jesus called us to serve and not to be served. You don’t need to ask, ‘Jesus, do you want me to serve?’ The answer is yes. We know that Jesus desires for us to be part of a Jesus-minded community. You don’t need to ask – the answer is yes. You know that Jesus has told you to go and make disciples, so you don’t need to ask, ‘Jesus do you want me to go and share the hope I have in you with others?’ The answer is yes.”

“We’re suppose to make disciples, so we need to extend invitations. We’re supposed to take care of those who are hurting, so we need to make a meal and take it to somebody’s house. Those are not things that we need to ask questions about. Those are things that we already know the answer to.”

“Quit knocking and start sharing. Quit knocking and start serving. Quit knocking and start telling people about the hope that you have in Jesus. We don’t need more open doors – we just need to walk through the ones that already exist.”

“Whenever you feel like giving up or giving in, remember that the victorious King Jesus loves you. Remember that He’s called you. Remember that He holds you – remember who He is. He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. He is the Prince of Peace, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God. He is mighty God. He is the author, He is the perfecter of your faith. He is the one who began a good work in you and will see it to completion. He has no rival… He has no equal… He is the name above all names. If this Jesus opens a door for you, you can trust Him to walk on through it. Hold on to the one who is holding on to you.”