New Life Downtown

In the third and final part of this series from Romans 12, we explore what it means to be the one who shares, with simplicity, generosity and intentionality; what it means to be the one who oversees, with commitment and concern for others; and what it means to be the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness, wholeheartedness, and graciousness. Pastor Glenn also explains how we discover our gifts not by being self-consumed but by being changed by grace, seeing needs and stepping out in faith to serve others. After all, grace is the fountain, gifts are the overflow, and Jesus is the source.

Spiritual gifts are how God's grace come to a visible expression in us. But in week two of this series, Pastor Glenn reminds us that what God creates, He invites us to cultivate. Spiritual gifts, then, are not just to be discovered; they are to be developed. Continuing through Paul's list of spiritual gifts in Romans 12, we learn how serving, teaching, and exhorting reveal Jesus and express God's grace to others.

When we think of a person being "gifted", we either see it as a reason to exclude ourselves or as an opportunity to improve ourselves. But neither is close to what the Bible has to say about spiritual gifts. Pastor Glenn Packiam explains that because the church is a community formed by grace and gifted by God's grace, spiritual gifts are given to us as a way to express God's grace to others. First on the list in Romans 12:3-8 is prophecy, which is simply "Spirit-inspired speech that helps us reveal Jesus to others in a way that strengthens, encourages, and comforts them."

Spiritual practices, like prayer, are not about impressing God but inviting God to work in our lives. Yet, if we're honest, we struggle with prayer because we're not sure what to pray, or if God cares, or what prayer accomplishes. Pastor Glenn draws from Jesus' teaching on prayer to show us how prayer is a learned language, a personal encounter, and a powerful invitation for God to bring His saving and restoring rule to bear upon the brokenness of our lives and our world.

As we conclude our journey through the Book of Acts, Pastor Glenn recaps Luke's message that the Gospel cannot be stopped. Jesus- the Saving and Victorious King- invites us to join His Story, a Story that will make our world larger and us altogether different. As we do, we discover that with God even what we think is the end is not really the end. In Acts 28, Paul ends up in prison, not the ending we were expecting. But even there he preaches the Kingdom of God with boldness and without hindrance. Where are the dead ends in your life? What if you began to believe that even that is not the end? How would you live if you knew you couldn't die? What would you risk if you knew you couldn't lose? How would you love if you knew love would win?

Preaching from the Song of Simeon- the "Nunc Dimittis"--Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how Jesus is the great culmination of all our deepest hopes, the fulfillment of our truest longing. It turns out that what we need most is exactly what God has been preparing from the beginning, and what He has promised: salvation. Salvation is the coming back together of God's world, beginning with our hearts being set right with God. Can we have eyes to see what Simeon saw, to see the "salvation that God has prepared in the presence of all peoples"?

What is God like? Though we may know the right answer, we easily slip back into a tribal view of God as punitive and retributive. Like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, we cower in fear. But God has always been, in His essence, Love. Preaching from the Magnifcat, Pastor Glenn Packiam shows that God makes His mercy arrive wave after wave, reaching its fullness in Christ.

In a world of anxiety and fear, is it really possible to "be of good cheer"? While we may be tempted to achieve a kind of "cheerfulness" but ignoring grief or numbing our anxiety, Pastor Glenn shows how Paul exhorts the sailors in Acts 27 to have faith in God, even when all hope is lost. It is when we come to end of ourselves, overwhelmed by the surging waves of Chaos and Evil that we find our God to be not only the Sovereign over the storm, but the Savior in the midst of it.

Pastor Glenn talks from the song of the angels in Luke 2, explaining that the peace God brings is not a generic peace, but a particular saving peace to the ones whom God favors--the unlikely and unworthy ones now favored because of Christ. It is peace with God and peace in a troubled world. As we remember the tragic shooting that happened at our church 5 years ago, we see the unshakable peace that God has given us and recognize the faithfulness of God to us when we least expected it. Moreover, this peace has been shown to us so that we can carry this peace to others in a tangible way.

Pastor Gregg preaches on the shaping of our stories, based on Acts 26. Paul shared his testimony, for the third time, to a king whose family has been intertwined with the story of Jesus for generations.