New Life Downtown

When Christians start talking about our view of sexual morality, we are not often perceived as being loving. But what if Paul's admonishment to abstain from immorality and greed are actually rooted in the call to live with love? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Ephesians 5 to demonstrate that sexual morality for the Christian is not simply about being a good person, but is the embodiment of a life of Christ-like love. Moreover, we can break the cycle of lust and greed when we gratefully remember that we already are dearly loved children of God.

Pastor Glenn Packiam begins a new series from Ephesians 4-6 on what it means to live as resurrection people. In this first week, we explore how living in unity is a kind of living that is equal to the weight of our calling as the people of God, and what it takes to live peaceably with one another.

The most troubling claim Jesus made was the exclusive one - that He alone is the Way to the Father. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us discover how Jesus is the Way because He is the truth about God, and the Life of God. This exclusive claim is good news that extends to everyone.

When is it too late? If physical death is the embodiment of spiritual death, then resurrection is not only the hope of new bodies in the future, but also the promise of new life now. Pastor Glenn Packiam invites us to believe in Jesus, the only one who can bring us back from death. Once we experience this new life, we are invited to partner with Jesus in bringing resurrection to others.

With enough experiences of leaders or teachers or others disappointing us, we begin to believe that we have to take care of our selves. We close our heart off, trusting no one. Yet Jesus calls us to see Him as the Good Shepherd, the only one who cares, the only one who is strong enough to lead us. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see Jesus as the Shepherd who does not take, but instead gives His life for us.

Jesus is the light that represents both the person and presence of God, and the revealing wisdom to live. Coming into the light starts to order the chaos of our darkness.

In the first week of this Lenten series, Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks the first of the 'I Am' sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of John. To see Jesus as the Bread of Life is to first recognize that our lives are ordered by the pursuits of our appetites. Then can we see Jesus not only as the Provider, but also as the provision.

How do we participate with the Spirit in his transformative work? In the final week in our series on the Holy Spirit, Pastor Jason Jackson takes a look at our role in spiritual formation through the lens of Romans 12:1-2. By and through the mercies of God, Jason encourages us to place ourselves in God's presence - to show up where the Spirit is at work - through what John Wesley called the "means of grace." As we continually immerse ourselves in God's grace, the Spirit reshapes into the image of Jesus.