Life on the West Side

“Aging is what happens if we’re lucky; it means that I’m alive.” —Cindy Crawford.

Young and old, we are unhappy with our bodies. Sometimes they don’t work. Sometimes they don’t make sense. But I want to tell you that your body has meaning, purpose, and a future. And to prove it…our Lord has one too.

The sermon today is titled "Body." It is the third installment in our "Identity" Series. The Scripture reading is from Genesis 2:25 & Philippians 3:21. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on February 26, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Discover: A New Identity.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• For this series, I formed my outline (and begin each lesson) by consulting James Bryan Smith's The Good & Beautiful You. For this lesson, see especially chapter 2: "You Have A Body."
• Jokes about Dillard's bill in collection basket and wearing mismatched earings from Mary Maxwell.
• Statistics on happiness with bodies comes from the National Organization for Women and Mentalhealth.org.uk.
• Tish Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary.
• Jonathan Storment, "Adam & Eve: Searching for God in a Body." Sermon series at PVCC.
• N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God.

Listen to the music. “Satisfy My Soul.” “Heart and Soul.” “Soul Survivor.” We know we are more than flesh and bones. We thirst for something deeper. Something richer. Something more.

God put that in you. You were made for something more. It’s your true identity.

That longing you sense deep down? That's your soul thirsting for God (Psalm 42).

The sermon today is titled "Soul." It is the second installment in our "Identity" Series. The Scripture reading is from Genesis 2:7 & Psalm 42:1. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on February 19, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Discover: A New Identity.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• For this series, I formed my outline (and begin each lesson) by consulting James Bryan Smith's The Good & Beautiful You. For this lesson, see especially chapter 1: "You Have A Soul."
• "Chief mode of transportation 200 years ago is the same as 2000 years ago." First heard this from Randy Harris (ACU). See evidence here.
• James Hillman & Michael Ventura, We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotheraphy--And the World's Getting Worse.
• Stats on mental health taken from Statista and the CDC.
• Jennifer Baldwin, Trauma-Sensitive Theology: Thinking Theologically in the Era of Trauma.
• Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self.
• I learned of Edward Tronick's experiments from Andy Crouch, The Life We're Looking For, p. 4. For the journal article, see here.
• N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God.
• On Origen, see de principiis, III.iv.1. On Tertullian, ses de baptismo, 5. I am indebted to Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (4th ed).

When we sense no purpose, we create purpose. We have to. It’s how we are wired. Without purpose, without meaning, without a sense that we are wanted and our contribution is meaningful, we die. But we know all to well that self-created purpose lasts as long as we find interest in it, and it is only as solid as your imagination allows. 

What we long for, what we sense deep in our bones, what we want to be true even when nothing on earth tells us its true, is that there is something for which we were intended; there is someone for whom we were no accident. What if I told you that you were planned. Purposed. Intended. Chosen.  It’s true. 

The sermon today is titled "Wanted." It is the first installment in our "Identity" Series. The Scripture reading is from Genesis 1:26-28 & Psalm 139:13-16. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on February 12, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Discover: A New Identity.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• For this series, I formed my outline (and begin each lesson) by consulting James Bryan Smith's The Good & Beautiful You. For this lesson, see especially chapter 3: "You Are Desired" and chapter 5: "You  Are Made For God."
• For the Betty comic strip illustration, see Stanley Grenz, Created For Community (2nd ed), p. 67.
• For this version of the story about Gregory/Gloria Hemmingway, see Stephen Sizer's lesson "You Were Planned For God's Pleasure" here.  He learned the story from Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace?
• For more on Ernest Hemminway's 1953 short story, "The Capital of the World," see this Wikipedia article.
• The cultural storyline is taken from Jonathan Storment's excellent Lesson "Raised in Power" at the 2022 Harding University Lectureship.
• The Richard Dawkins quote is from his book River Out of Eden, p. 133. Found in Smith, p. 52.
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Prologue," In Memoriam, stanza 3.  Found in Smith, p. 53.
• "O Holy Night" is based on a French poem by Placide Cappeau (1843), set to music by Adolphe Adam in 1847. Found in Smith, p. 58.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream.

God is the perfect parent. All the traits we find most helpful in mothers and fathers are found first--and fullest--in God. As image-bearers, we learn how to parent from the God who parents us. And we rejoice in sharing a blessing on all children and parents, as we dedicate our children to the Lord.

The sermon today is titled "Parenting In The Image of God." It is a stand-alone sermon for a Baby Dedication service. The Scripture reading is from Genesis 1:26-28 & Ephesians 6:4. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 29, 2023. These lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Grow: Families & Relationships.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Follow me @nathanpguy (facebook/instagram/twitter)
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

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In partnership with:

• West Side Church of Christ
• Life on the West Side: Nathan's Weekly Substack

Where does the gospel lead? What does the gospel create? What develops as a result of the gospel? Can you imagine an advertisement to be “free from weight loss” where the before and after picture looked the same? In the New Testament, the gospel that frees, the gospel that saves, the gospel that redeems leads to freed, saved, redeemed people living free, saved, redeemed lives. It means recognizing not just what we were saved from, but also what we were saved for.

The sermon today is titled "The Demands of the Gospel." It is the final installment in our "What Is The Gospel" Series. The Scripture reading is from Ephesians 2:10 & Titus 3:8. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on February 5, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Gracious Gospel.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• I am greatly indebted to Dr. Timothy Keller for the personal dimension of the gospel in this sermon series, and some of the illustrations used here come from him. See especially the following four Keller sources:
  • Sermon: "What Is The Gospel?" (Sep 12, 2003).
  • Sermon: "How The Gospel Changes Us" (Sep 13, 2003).
  • Sermon: "The Gospel" (Sep 25, 2005)
  • Book: Center Church (Chapters 1-3 & 5).
• For the importance of "participation in Christ" and giving allegiance to King Jesus as part of the gospel message, see especially:
  • Matthew Bates, Salvation By Allegiance Alone or Gospel Allegiance or The Gospel Precisely
  • John M. G. Barclay, Paul & The Gift or Paul & The Power of Grace
  • Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel
  • N. T. Wright, How God Became King

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream.

How do I know if I am explaining the depth of the gospel or adding to the gospel? The answer is found in discovering the content of the earliest preaching, the central themes that appear in gospel presentations.

What we would need is something that touches on all the central items the gospel seeks to proclaim, the things that would have been believed and received when the “word” was preached. We would want it to include the things that appear over and over again in the early speeches of Acts, that ground the teaching of the Apostles in the rest of the New Testament, and that encapsulates what “the word of His grace” was meant to include. And since baptism dramatically displays the gospel, it would need to include all the major truths being proclaimed in that moment as well. 

The sermon today is titled "The Diameter of the Gospel." It is the fourth installment in our "What Is The Gospel" Series. The Scripture reading is from Ephesians 4:4-6. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 22, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Gracious Gospel.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• This lesson was inspired by the work of Dr. Scott Adair, Professor of Bible & Theology at Harding University (Searcy, AR). See the following sources:
  • My podcast interview with Dr. Adair titled "The Gospel Project" which appeared in summary form in this substack article.
  • Dr. Adair's Chapter 5: "Reading Scripture Baptismally" in Scripture First, ed. Oden & Stark (ACU Press, 2020)
• For Walter Scott's "Five Finger Exercise", see this Wikipedia article.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

Some headlines are clearly counterfeit. Your "gospel" is the headline that defines your life. We can probably name some really bad, truly wrong headlines that seem to define life for many people. “Might makes right,” or “All that matters is who wins.” These are counterfeit gospels. But then there are good things. Maybe great things. Even essential things. But if they take top billing in what defines our identity and purpose in life, they are counterfeit gospels as well.

Three counterfeit gospels are (1) a gospel without Jesus, (2) a gospel of Jesus without the cross, and (3) a gospel that adds to the cross of Jesus.

The sermon today is titled "Distinguishing the Gospel: Counterfeit Gospels." It is the third installment in our "What Is The Gospel" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 1:6-9. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 15, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Gracious Gospel.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• I am greatly indebted to Dr. Timothy Keller for the personal dimension of the gospel in this sermon series. See especially the following four Keller sources:
  • Sermon: "What Is The Gospel?" (Sep 12, 2003).
  • Sermon: "How The Gospel Changes Us" (Sep 13, 2003).
  • Sermon: "The Gospel" (Sep 25, 2005)
  • Book: Center Church (Chapters 1-3 & 5).
• I also benefitted from Scot McKnight's commentary on Galatians.
• You can find information about counterfeit money here and here.
• For examples of knock-off stores and items, click here.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

Simple? Yes. Simplistic? Not on your life. The gospel is not just a list of beliefs about something that happened 2,000 years ago. It’s the controlling narrative that makes sense of everything that’s ever happened, and everything that will happen. It is the constant flowing river underneath every commandment, every prophetic message, every story of conflict between good and evil, and every hope expressed to God by a people crying out for deliverance.

The sermon today is titled "The Depth of the Gospel: Retelling HIStory." It is the second installment in our "What Is The Gospel" Series. The Scripture reading is from Romans 1:1-6 and Galatians 3:8. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 8, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Gracious Gospel.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• I am greatly indebted to Dr. Timothy Keller for the personal dimension of the gospel in this sermon series. See especially the following four Keller sources:
  • Sermon: "What Is The Gospel?" (Sep 12, 2003).
  • Sermon: "How The Gospel Changes Us" (Sep 13, 2003).
  • Sermon: "The Gospel" (Sep 25, 2005)
  • Book: Center Church (Chapters 1-3 & 5).

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

What is the gospel? Every religion teaches about man chasing after God. The gospel says that God came chasing after us. I am not the primary agent; God is the primary agent. I am the problem. God is the solution. The gospel highlights not my worthiness, but my unworthiness. The gospel highlights Christ’s worthiness, and then it talks about how in Christ, through His Spirit, by His power, the most amazing things begin to happen.

The sermon today is titled "The Definition of the Gospel: Finding Our One Thing." It is the first installment in our "What Is The Gospel" Series. The Scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 1, 2022. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Gracious Gospel.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• I am greatly indebted to Dr. Timothy Keller for the personal dimension of the gospel in this sermon series. See especially the following four Keller sources:
  • Sermon: "What Is The Gospel?" (Sep 12, 2003).
  • Sermon: "How The Gospel Changes Us" (Sep 13, 2003).
  • Sermon: "The Gospel" (Sep 25, 2005)
  • Book: Center Church (Chapters 1-3 & 5).
• The series introduction is taken from "Keys To The Kingdom Sermon Video" by ShareFaith.com.
• The headlines are from Jay Leno. See "13 crazy headlines Jay Leno loved."
• Transcript from the movie Gladiator is found here.
• Gary Keller, The One Thing.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

The fruit of the Spirit is ...meekness. What do Moses, Jesus, and the servant compelled to go one mile have in common? A willingness to accept the task assigned, and to do so by the power of God.

The sermon today is titled "Meekness." It is an installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:23. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on January 1, 2023. These lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Grow: Spiritual Formation.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

I'd love to connect with you!

• Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.
• Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.
• Follow me @nathanpguy (facebook/instagram/twitter/tiktok)
• Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

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In partnership with:

• West Side Church of Christ
• Life on the West Side: Nathan's Weekly Substack