Life on the West Side

Close your eyes. I want you to picture the face of God. Hold that image in your mind. What are you picturing? Get as clear a picture as you can. Does God have a human looking face? Is he standing or sitting? Is he old or young? Zoom in. Is he stern, frowning, or smiling? Now, focus on your feelings. What emotions are welling up inside you? Is it fear, concern, joy, curiosity, bewilderment, worry, pain, awe, love? Once you’ve identified the picture you see, and the emotions you feel, ask yourself why you see and feel what you do. What experiences in your life have framed God in this way for you? Perhaps you can name the stories in Scripture that seem to overshadow the others, the ones that color how you see everything else. The stories we tell ourselves about who God is will inform who we think we are, and, in turn, will color how we see everything in the world.

The sermon today is titled "Lenses." It is the first installment in our "Good and Beautiful God" Series. The Scripture reading is from Exodus 34:5-9. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on August 21, 2022. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Good God.

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.
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In partnership with:

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

Think noble things of God! That is something Jim McGuiggan says often. I had the opportunity to sit down with one of my favorite preachers to discuss how we see God and make Him known in our assemblies.

I asked Jim three questions:

1. What inspired you to write The God of the Towel? (2:07)
2. What are we doing poorly in our assemblies and how can we improve so that God may be seen more clearly? (13:28)
3. If you could only tell preachers one thing, what would it be? (19:06)

In this episode, Jim answers each question with fire, fervor, and faith. I know you will be blessed in the listening.

The episode today is an interview recorded on Saturday,  September 17, 2022.

Links and Resources:

• Website: Spending Time With Jim McGuiggan.
• A collection of 200 of Jim's Sermons.
• McGuiggan Reflections on YouTube.
• The Original God of the Towel (buy it used).
• The redone version of God of the Towel.
• Jim's Amazon page of books.

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

Before God, by His Spirit, can build us up, God, by His Spirit, must break us down. The man bowed his head to pray over me. “Lord," he began, "I pray that you will break in him what needs to be broken.”  It's a line from Psalm 51. I didn’t know that verse at the time. What I thought was “what arrogance!” It would be years later before that story overcame my pride, and I was able to stand in front of the mirror and say “what arrogance!” 

I wasn’t ready. I was trying to turn a story about God into a story about me…and it made me delight in all that God despises—like keeping records of wrongs; it made me blind to my own selfish ambition which is listed as a major sin alongside slave trading. It made me all mouth and no ears, even though the Bible says a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be quick to listen and slow to speak. And it caused me to see people as projects and scorecards rather than people made in the image of God.

To say it another way, it was all word, and no spirit. It was strength of will, that turned into will worship. It’s what Paul is upset about when he sees it. My friend chose to see me not as an annoying blip on his screen, but a person to be loved and taught. That was over a quarter of a century ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. And it serves as a defining moment in my life.

The sermon today is titled "Soil." It is the last installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Psalm 51:8-10. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on August 21, 2022. 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

The fruit of the Spirit is faith. As his boy lay dying, the man knows the healer. He bears his soul to the Master. “If you can, I know my boy will be healed.” “If YOU can” replies Jesus, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:22-24). Listen to the cry of the heart–perhaps the sound coming from deep without your own soul: “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!” I have faith! But I’m running on empty. And I need to believe.

Let this point sink deep into your ears, and do not forget it: by the grace of a merciful God, in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Spirit of God, your faith can be renewed. God will take your faith that has waned and give you back a faith that sustains. It is right for Christians to pray for faith. Deeper, richer faith. Fuller, stronger faith. A faith that can move mountains. A faith that will survive shootings, and heart-attacks, the loss of a child, and the end of the world. Oh God, give your people faith.

The sermon today is titled "Faith." It is the sixth installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on August 14, 2022. 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.

Links and Resources:

• David Van Biema, "Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith," Time Magazine (Aug 23, 2007).

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

The fruit of the Spirit is kindness, goodness...gentleness. The way of the flesh leads to nothing good. But sometimes we get glimpses of an alterate universe--a different way of being. A life where things like kindness, goodness, and gentleness bloom. This is life in the Spirit. This is the kingdom of God.

The sermon today is titled "Kind, Good, & Gentle." It is the fifth installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on August 7, 2022. 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.

Links and Resources:

• Stories of kindness and goodness from past Olympics taken from this article at bible.org.

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

The fruit of the Spirit is patience. Our God is "endlessly patient" (Ex 34:6 MSG). But I am not. We need patient for the long journey, and we find the power to pursue patient endurance by the Spirit. But we struggle to let the Spirit reign in our impatient lives due to pride, cynicism, forgetfulness, and a lack of trust.

The sermon today is titled "Patience." It is the fourth installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on July 31, 2022. 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.

Links and Resources:

• Don Richardson's book Peace Child.

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

The Fruit of the Spirit is Peace. Peace is something we cry for and long for. Ask most people on the planet, “what is the number one prayer in most place at most times?” I imagine they would say, “peace.” Peace in Middle East. Peace across the country. Peace in my home. Peace at my family’s Thanksgiving Day table. To avoid becoming the Hatfields and the McCoy’s, we pray for peace.

And that brings us to the cross of Christ. Christ, who is our peace (Eph 2:14). He is the peace child, breaking us down, shattering every last barrier erected due to our hostility. “Peace I leave with you,” said Jesus to his fearful disciples, “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27 ESV).

If he has overcome the world, can he not overcome the rifts in your life? And if God could offer his own son for peace, how can we not offer a cup of coffee, or a seat at the table, or the right hand of fellowship, or the long-awaited hug, or the long-resisted apology? How can we not lay our weapons down and say “this is what it means to rest in the peace of the cross?"

The sermon today is titled "Peace." It is the third installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on July 24, 2022. 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.

Links and Resources:

• Don Richardson's book Peace Child.

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

The Fruit of the Spirit is Joy. Katie and I can’t imagine a more joyful day than when we welcomed Grace into the world. There was incredible pain that day. The kind of pain that in any other situation would cause you to wonder if God is even present, or if he cares about the suffering of my wife on the surgeon’s table. But that’s because joy is something far different from agreeable conditions or the absence of pain and sorrow. It’s something deeper, more powerful, more sustaining, and bubbles up in the midst of the pains of the world, then transforms into a gushing river that overwhelms us, and defines the moment. So much so, that when we look at a picture from that day, the pain is never even mentioned. Whatever that is—this thing called Joy—I want more of it. Don’t you?

What Paul is talking about in Galatians 5 is not a joy that comes naturally because of our circumstances; it’s a sustained sense of abundance, goodness, and love, hope and promise in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. 

For you and me, on our own, we might experience something like that a handful of times in our life. But God’s joy—not ours—the kind given by the Holy Spirit, is not momentary, but everlasting. Like love, this is not a human-will-power-produced kind of joy; it’s God’s joy given to us. 

The sermon today is titled "Joy." It is the second installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on July 17, 2022. 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.

Links and Resources:

• Sam Wells, "The Discipline of Joy." Sermon preached at Duke University Chapel (4/4/10).
• Sam Wells. "Fear and Joy." Sermon preached at Duke University Chapel (4/8/07).

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

God is love. In the New Testament, God is described with adjectives: God is holy; God is just; God is merciful. But in 1 John, God is defined when the text says God is Love (1 John 4:8). In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to die for us (1 John 4:10). Rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God commends/shows/displays/proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:7-9). See what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us—that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are (1 Jn 3:1)! This is why…This is why…inspiration says that God IS love. It was Karl Barth who suggested that we insert the name “Jesus” every place you find the word “love” in your New Testament. I told you this morning that the theme of every sermon, and the heart of every story in the Bible is Jesus Christ. But it’s also true that the theme of every sermon, the heart of every story in the Bible is love.

The sermon today is titled "Love." It is the first installment in our "Fruit of the Spirit" Series. The Scripture reading is from Galatians 5:22. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on July 10, 2022. 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

Meet Christ in the water. Nothing can wash away my sins--nothing but the blood of Jesus. The gospel is the story of Jesus Christ, doing what we could never do, paying what we could never pay. The gospel gets a hold of our hearts and demands a response. In the New Testament, the uniting response is to confess Christ as Lord and to follow Jesus into water for this crossing over experience. 

Baptism is obedient faith. It is imitating Christ. It is retelling the gospel. It is obeying the greatest commandment. It is our crossing over, exodus moment. And the religious leaders rejected the council of God by not being baptized. They wanted to stay in the shadows. They didn’t want to go public. That’s why, as Max Lucado says in one of his books, baptism separates the car buyer from the tire-kicker. It’s time to commit. It’s time to unite with Christ. It’s time to accept the cross as your way of life.

The sermon today is titled "Step Into The Water." The Scripture reading is from Acts 8:35-39. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on August 14, 2022. These lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Joyful Response.

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

Links and Resources:

• N. T. Wright provides a powerful description of baptism as our Exodus moment.
• Randy Harris preached a powerful sermon on Baptism.
• Everett Ferguson has written the definitive study of baptism in the early Christian experience from a historical perspective.
• Read the remarkable ecumenical statement on baptism from the World Council of Churches (1982).

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