Living Faith Christian Church Sermons

Do you view rest as essential for your relationship with God and discipleship to Jesus? In a world of hurry, tech and entertainment, we do not prioritize sleep, rest and sabbath. Yet, we can't really love God and others well when we aren't rested. God wants us to trust Him enough to take time to rest.

The world is noisy, busy and in a hurry. God is not like that. God speaks to us in a whisper more often than not, yet we must take the time to be quiet to hear. This takes intentional action and goes counter to everything in the world shouting for our attention. But in the quiet place our God speaks.

Do you live within your limits? Do you add on to your already full schedule? Are you always on the go? We often think of limits as a bad thing but many of our limitations are gifts from God. The key is to prioritize our lives so that the most important stuff get in our lives first.

How do you deal with interruptions in life? Jesus was often interrupted and never responded like we tend to do. His life was full yet he was able to be present and welcome interruptions as invitations to join God in His work.

We long for the things Jesus had a part of his life - love, peace, patience - but do we stop and think about the lifestyle he had which fostered those things? As disciples we are called to follow our teacher. Jesus would often spend time in the quiet place, praying. We should train ourselves in the same way and we will reap the things of Jesus' life that we long for.

Being a disciple of Jesus has its own challenges in and of itself, but following Jesus in a world of distraction, busyness, hurry and more as extra challenges to overcome. We often find ourselves busy and missing what really matters. But this can change.

Jesus asks if we only love those who love us. But what about if someone we know and love has doubt? And are we aware of how we might be choosing the splendor of this world rather than God? Jesus asks us to examine our hearts and actions to know for sure. A two part message on some of the important questions of Jesus.

Jesus and Peter's post-resurrection conversation teaches us about our own hearts. Jesus asks Peter "do you love me" and responds to Peter's answer with an invitation to put his confession of love into action.

If an angel showed up to speak to you today, what would they say? One phrase repeated by each of the angelic visitors in the Biblical Christmas story was "do not be afraid." This was repeated not just because sometimes angels show up and startle people - but because God wanted the people to know that though they might have been fearful about what was ahead, because He was working and with them, they did not need to be afraid! Hear the message from God again - "do not be afraid."

With the crowds debating who Jesus was, Jesus asks his disciples "who do you say that I am". Peter responds with his first confession of Jesus as Christ and son of God. But what follows his confession is Jesus making his own declaration about Peter's life. Our craving for meaning and purpose is satisfied when we know who Jesus is and allow him to show us who we really are. Knowing the truth about Jesus ought to lead us to be transformed by following Jesus.