New Life Downtown

Companionship is one of the great gifts of life 'under the sun'. Ecclesiastes 4 shows how companions increase joys, multiply possibilities, and share sorrows. Yet even the best of friendships has its limits. Friends may fail, and friends may be just as stuck as we are. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see what it might look like to see the Holy Spirit as the truest companion, and the bond in all our human relationships.

We may try to delay death, or to minimize its severity, or avoid thinking about it at all, but death is as inevitable as it is problematic. Pastor Glenn Packiam outlines how death reminds us of the fragility of life, of the finality of life's ending, and of the futility of our attempts to transcend life. All this the Teacher in Ecclesiastes can help us see. But it is the Gospel that shows us more. The Gospel that tells us that we have been loved with a love that is stronger than death, and that makes all the difference.

Our work in a fallen world is full of toil-- hardship and sweat. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes points to the futility of our toil, but also provides a hint that toil is connected to time. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see our work as something that must match our season, as something to be received as a gift from God, and as something that will ultimately be made beautiful in His time.

Ecc. 2:12-17 seems on the surface to be a depressing, fatalist look at life. Dr. Steven Todd explores this passage with its NT counterpart in 1 Cor.1:18-25 and considers how confession, absolution, and the table of the Lord allows us to lean into God even when things don't make sense.

What does it mean to be "spiritual"? What is the purpose of the spiritual gifts? All to often we see certain spiritual gifts put on display and we are left to question the validity of our own Christian experience in light of other people's experience. Throughout Scripture we see that there are a variety of spiritual gifts, but there is one Spirit that empowers them all. Pastor Joey Jimenez reminds us that the beauty of diversity is most fully on display within the context of unity. The spiritual gifts are meant for the mutual edification of the body of Christ.

What should we make of pleasure? If we were to follow the ancients, we would either abstain from pleasure, indulge it, or enjoy it moderately. But does the Gospel have more to say? After outlining three types of pleasures found in Ecclesiastes 2, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see how Jesus calls us to receive pleasure as a gift, to reshape how we enjoy each pleasure, and to redirect pleasure so that it culminates in grateful praise to God.

We don't always want to admit it, but sometimes even the best things in life let us down. Ecclesiastes gives us to permission to say it, and even offers a prophetic challenge to our optimism. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see how recognizing the emptiness of all things can wake us to the longing for more. While Solomon can only lead us to confess this emptiness and weariness, Jesus calls us to Himself to give us life and rest.

In this Easter message, Pastor Glenn Packiam uses the familiar story of the Prodigal Son to show the human tendency toward religion (the attempt to reach God on our own) or rebellion (the attempt to live without God). Yet both paths lead to death. Building on our desire to escape death and attain life, we are called to escape the real death and to attain the true life, a Life possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In this short Palm Sunday reflection, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to recognize that our thirst for glory comes from God, though we often look for fill it with the glory that comes from men and women. The astonishing news of the Gospel is that the Lord of glory emptied himself that we might be filled...with the glory of God.

There are times when we don't know how to pray, when the questions of whether we're going to make it or if our lives are going to matter cloud our hearts. In those times, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus, our Great High Priest, is praying for us. Pastor Glenn Packiam examines John 17, helping us see what Jesus is praying for, and how our prayer - at it?s

best - is simply an 'Amen' to Jesus' prayer.