New Life Downtown

Romans 8 is like the ending of a movement in a great symphony. Paul intends to lead us to worship the god who has done the impossible. Pastor Glenn Packiam tackles the first half of the chapter, helping us see how God has condemned Sin instead of us, given us the Spirit of Resurrection Life, and made us His children and heirs.

Why is the human experience repeatedly one of setting up standards and falling short? While culture opts for eliminating behavior norms and some Christians resort to a grace that makes no requirements of obedience, the Gospel is actually better than that. Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Romans 7 to show how Sin seized an opportunity through the Law to destroy us, but Christ made a way to unite us with himself in death and resurrection.

As we continue to explore the effects of grace in Romans, Pastor Jason Jackson unpacks Paul's view of grace and sin as opposing powers. Grace liberates us from the power of sin and empowers us to live a new life under a new Lord. As we present ourselves to God, his grace infuses our life with his and he makes us holy - he makes us like Jesus.

What difference does the grace of God make? We often think of grace as erasing past mistakes, giving us a fresh start. But as Pastor Glenn Packiam draws on gift-giving in the ancient world, we begin to see how this Christ-Gift creates a new status, a new relationship, and new possibilities. The gift we could never have deserved or earned reverses the trajectory of sin and death.

Abraham had faith and God credited it to him as righteous. This week Pastor Jason Jackson looks at Paul's discussion of Abraham in Romans 4. He shows us how the Gospel fits God's character, fulfills his commitments and bids us to believe like Abraham.

After opening with the good news, Paul's 'bad news' continues to get bleaker. The infection of sin has spread to everyone, even the ones who were to be the carriers of the cure. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see our own tendencies to misdiagnose ourselves, to think our sin is a private affair, and to try to use some sort of 'law' to save us. Yet only Jesus by his faithfulness in death and resurrection can save us from sin.

As we begin our series on the Book of Romans, Pastor Glenn Packiam invites us to look afresh at what the good news is. We uncover the design of creation and the destructive effect of sin on our souls, minds, and bodies. The gospel is the power to put us back together again, revealing that God's faithfulness is stronger than our unfaithfulness.

In this final part of the series, Pastor Glenn Packiam examines how our work can be a way of bearing witness to the Kingdom of God. We tend to think that the gospel spread in the early Church only through apostles and prophets; but the everyday lives of merchants and tradespeople put God's goodness on display. When you understand the difference between 'vocation' and 'occupation', you can begin to discern how your calling can be lived out regardless of your current job.

Why does the church gather in worship? In our day of private spirituality and individual access to sermons and worship music online, it's difficult to know why it still matters that we gather together as the church. Preaching from Acts 2, and Ephesians 2 and 5, Pastor Glenn Packiam explains why the early Christians met at the Temple and then came to understand their gathering as the new Temple-- the place where God is especially present.