New Life Downtown

Drawing from 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, Pastor Glenn Packiam explores what happens when the Spirit is at work in a congregation. Instead of categorizing Christians as "spiritual" vs "unspiritual", we focus instead on the Spirit who gives generously to believers for the good of the church and the glory of God. When we surrender to the Spirit's work, setting aside both fear and pride, the Lordship of Jesus is proclaimed in the world.

To experience the unity we have in Jesus we must learn how to be counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. Simply put it doesn't come natural for us to reach across the potential barriers of race, age, social status and economics to connect with other fellow believers. The community of faith we call home is inevitably full of people not like us or even people we'd rather not be around. We'll learn from Paul's rebuke in I Corinthians 11 what it will take for us to work in concert with the Holy Spirit to foster unity and oneness among our spiritual family. Pastor Brad Baker will be our guide as we journey back to Corinth to see what we can then apply in our present day circumstances.

How do we last? What will the story of our lives be after we are gone? In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul points to the church's spiritual fore-parents, Israel, as both an example and a warning. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see five possible layers or steps to falling away, beginning with wrong or disordered desires. Temptations, then, can be invitations to examine our soul and opportunities to witness the faithfulness of God. In the end, we stand not by human skill or will, but by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah and by the power of the Spirit of God who lives in us.

What is the place of ambition in the Christian life? Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks 1 Corinthians 9 to show that we are a "sent people", and that we have been sent to be "spent" for the glory of God and the good of others. The race we are invited into is a long obedience in the same direction, a steady life of faithfulness and service. Though we may fall, we will not fail, for we run as those who have already won-- for in Christ, we have.

Why do I still struggle with sin and weakness even though I am a believer? Can I really live the Christian life described in the Bible? Pastor Jeremiah Parks shows us how realizing the fullness of the reality of Christ's Resurrection utterly empowers us, not to be better people, but to be a new kind of people all together.

What do we do when all hope seems lost? Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see that Lent gives way to Easter, sorrow is pierced by joy, night is broken by morning, death gets swallowed up by life. Because of Easter, sin-- no matter how dire-- is not the end. Because of Easter, death-- the great threatening bully-- is not the end. Because of Easter, even heaven is not the end. One day, the Creator-God will renew His whole world, bringing "Easter" to the cosmos. But the best part of all of this is that it can begin now! When we let go of our self-reliance-- whether it looks like rebellion or religion-- and surrender to Christ, He breathes the Spirit into us and we receive resurrection life; we become a new creation, even now.

In this final week of the series, Pastor Glenn helps us explore the feeling of being forsaken by God. From the rich tradition of lament in the psalms, we discover that protest can be a proof of faith. When we take our complaint to God, we affirm both his sovereignty and his love. But the psalms-even Psalm 22-comes to its completion in Christ. In Jesus-from His birth to His death to His resurrection-we see the faithfulness of God. In the end, we can trust that the forsakenness we feel is not truer than the faithfulness revealed in Christ.

In a culture obsessed with success and strength, it can be hard to know what to do with failure. Failure, when it happens, is an experience of loss, a loss of status and sometimes even a loss of meaning. Failure can be disorienting, the feeling of life 'going off script.' And yet, we have a Savior who was considered a failure by his culture and his friends. More than that, Jesus carried our deepest failure-our failure to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see that because of Jesus, our failure is never final. We are the beloved of God.

Beyond the loneliness that can come from new situations or locations, many of us have felt a profound sense of loneliness or dislocation--wondering where we fit and if we belong. Once again, we are reminded to give voice to this ache in prayer. This week, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see that Jesus does more than weep and pray and suffer *with* us and *as* us; he does all this *for* us. This means that because Jesus took on the ultimate loneliness, we are never truly alone. (This sermon includes a portion for the children as part of our "Family Sunday" practice.)

What do when we do when life presses in on us? Why does it feel like God doesn't answer our prayers? Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see that petition and protest are proof of the relationship, signs of trust in God. Jesus, the True Human One, shows us the range of human emotions- including anguish and anxiety in the garden of Gethsemane- that can be brought before the Father in prayer and trust. What we discover is that because Jesus went into the depths of anguish and beyond, He is with us in the valley. And because the Father did not abandon Jesus in grave, we can trust that darkness and death will not triumph in the end.