The Bible is full of enlightening contrasts that help us understand Jesus and His upside-down Kingdom. Think about just a few of these prominent themes in Scripture: praying AND giving, sowing AND reaping, going AND sending. We will be exploring a few of these concepts over the next several weeks. This week, we’ll unpack the scene in Luke 9 where Jesus both models good news AND good works, and also sends out His disciples to do the same. For most Christians, we tend to gravitate to one or the other. We either lean toward bold proclamation of the gospel, with little good works that display the gospel, or we love doing gospel good works but rarely open our mouths to share the glorious good news of Jesus with others. And yet, Jesus calls us to both AND He promises to empower us for the task at hand. There’s absolutely no greater joy than joining Jesus in His mission of seeking and saving those who are far from Him!

As we put a wrap on our Good Design series, we can’t leave without digging into the subject of marriage. Our culture sees marriage as a means to self-fulfilment and satisfaction. The other person is supposed to “complete” us and make us happy. But is that the real purpose of marriage in God’s design? What if marriage was meant to paint a far more important and beautiful picture for the world about Jesus and His love? And what if by loving and sacrificing for each other in marriage and mirroring Jesus to one another, we created such a beautiful relationship that great sex was a natural byproduct of that type of self-sacrificing, honoring relationship? The truth is, sex was designed for marriage. It’s best experienced in marriage, and the best sex is only possible in marriage as husband and wife enter into a one flesh relationship of self-sacrificial love that points the world to the self-sacrificial love of Jesus for His Bride.

Who and how to date another person is a major question in a culture seeking answers about sex and relationships. In a world of dating apps, hook-up culture, casual sex, quick divorces and disposable relationships, does the Bible provide a healthier pathway through the maze of dating and marriage? The truth of the matter is that the Bible says nothing about dating, because it’s a concept that only appears in history about a century ago. Still, there are guiding principles to navigate the dating world that will help shape who and how we date and marry. As Christians learn to abandon the world’s cheap hook-up version of dating and embrace what we’ll call kingdom dating or intentional dating, we learn key principles that will guide us into a healthy marriage. Things like: run after Jesus harder than you run after anyone else. Find someone running in the same direction. Evaluate chemistry and character. Practice purity. Date in community. And finally, pray and relax. At the end of the day, God’s got this, and He has you. As you seek His Kingdom 1st, He will make sure you step into the right relationship at the right time, in order to bring Him glory & give you joy.

Who and how to date another person is a major question in a culture seeking answers about sex and relationships. In a world of dating apps, hook-up culture, casual sex, quick divorces and disposable relationships, does the Bible provide a healthier pathway through the maze of dating and marriage? The truth of the matter is that the Bible says nothing about dating, because it’s a concept that only appears in history about a century ago. Still, there are guiding principles to navigate the dating world that will help shape who and how we date and marry. As Christians learn to abandon the world’s cheap hook-up version of dating and embrace what we’ll call kingdom dating or intentional dating, we learn key principles that will guide us into a healthy marriage. Things like: run after Jesus harder than you run after anyone else. Find someone running in the same direction. Evaluate chemistry and character. Practice purity. Date in community. And finally, pray and relax. At the end of the day, God’s got this, and He has you. As you seek His Kingdom 1st, He will make sure you step into the right relationship at the right time, in order to bring Him glory & give you joy.

There are two primary narratives about sex in the world. One tells the story of sex as a mere phyiscal apatite along the lines of eating or drinking. The other storyline paints sex as something far deeper, with far reaching implications for the soul of humanity. One narrative leads to destruction, the other to flourishing. Our enemy has been feeding us lies since the garden: You’re missing out. It’s no big deal. You’ll finally be happy. But what if sex is a big deal? The Scriptures teach us that sex is designed for really deep things like unity, pleasure, procreation and ultimately a sign-post pointing to something greater: union with Christ. When people begin to worship a gift instead of the giver of that gift, things are sure to go bad. That’s why sex God’s way is never meant to restrict us, but to free us to enjoy Him and others in a full and life-giving way!

What is love? There’s so much confusion about what love is in our culture. Is love a feeling? Is it merely sexual? Why do I say I love filet mignon & I love my wife? Are those the same things? Closely related to love, I’d argue is our understanding of identity. If we don’t understand who we are & why we exist—it’s really impossible to love fully or receive love in a healthy, life-giving way. And it’s downright impossible to engage in sex, relationships & marriage in a healthy way without the foundation of love & identity. The Scriptures teach us much about both love and new identity in Christ. Understanding these, will help us build a healthy framework around sex, relationships and marriage--which were all created for our good and for the glory of King Jesus.

Sex, love & marriage are sacred gifts from God. In fact, God invented sex (& love & marriage)! God is very much pro-sex and not anti-sex despite what you may have been taught growing up in church. However, like all good things, we tend to (as fallen, sinful human beings) take what is good, and distort, mutilate, mangle what God designed for good and end up with some distorted version that causes more pain, loss, guilt & shame than good. To understand who we are and what our purpose is in the realms of sex, love and marriage, we must first understand where we came from and why we exist. As we look at our origin story in Genesis 1-2 (and Jesus’ commentary on those texts) we find some inescapable truths that must guide our lives as followers of Jesus. Firstly, we can’t define what we didn’t create. Secondly, we are all sexual sinners of one sort or the other. Thirdly, Jesus is the only antidote to our sexual and relational brokenness. The good news of the gospel is that there is freedom, forgiveness and redemption for all sexual sinners (that’s every single one of us) available through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus! We find our greatest freedom & flourishing as we align our lives with His design for human sexuality and relationships.

As James wraps up this letter that’s been all about a faith that bleeds into action, he ends on an important note: prayer. Prayer appears in every single verse of this passage. The importance of prayer in the Christian life cannot be understated. Spiritual life without prayer is like a vehicle without fuel. James tells us when we should pray, how we should pray and who we should be praying for. He also tells us that confession of sin is a really important component of a living faith. Finally, he challenges us to watch each other’s backs. We all have a tendency to drift spiritually at times, to wander from the gospel in difficult seasons of life, and God’s method to bring us back to Himself is very often other Christians. Following Jesus is an active and beautiful adventure!

James: Living Under Pressure - Joe Dillon, Guest Preacher 08.15.21

James saves some of his strongest words and harshest rebukes for the rich who oppress the poor. As James addresses wealthy, non-Christian landowners who exploit others so that they can live lavish lifestyles, believers get a front row seat to the dangers of wealth. We learn that riches are a poor functional savior. In fact, wrongly acquired and sinfully managed riches will serve as evidence against those who worship wealth instead of Jesus on the day of judgment. James reminds us that the wicked will not evade the justice of King Jesus. He hears the cries of the oppressed! This should inform the way we live our lives and steward our finances. For those who are being oppressed, this passage should serve as an encouragement that God has not forgotten you. He is the Lord of Hosts (Master of Armies) and King Jesus is coming back to rescue His people, right all wrongs, and make all things new!