Podcast - Mosaic | Lynchburg, VA Church

Last week, we talked about finding our identity in Christ, in knowing who we are and whose we are, and God guarantees us a peace that surpasses our understanding. In a culture where outrage is all the rage, however, we're challenged all the time to keep calm and stay fixed on Christ and what He would have us do in any situation, and we are always being watched to see how we respond.

I want to give you some Biblical wisdom and practical advice to keep you from losing your Christianity in public, and your witness right along with it. I can't wait to be with you this Sunday!

Who are you? Most of us don't spend a lot of time thinking about that question, but identity is a big deal in today's society. We want to see people who look like us on television and in the movies, we want people who look like us to represent us in government, and we even want our emojis to look like us. People today, especially Americans, order their lives around their identity. Society tells us that our identity is defined by our race, gender, ethnicity, class, vocation, sexual orientation and more, but what does God have to say about who we are? Does His definition of our identity come first, or is there something else? Do we use qualifiers before the name "Christian" to define or categorize each other and if so, why do we do that?

Who are we? Let's talk about it and learn what our Father and Creator, the One who made us and wrote the owner's manual, says about us.

Last week we spoke about Resolving Conflict and why it’s so important that we Make the First Move when trying to resolve or reconcile broken relationships. We also discovered why it’s imperative to be a peacemaker verses a peacekeeper.

This week we will look at a couple more “seeds" one should plant in order to “reap a harvest of goodness.” You are definitely going to want to keep these seeds in your pocket at all times!

One of the most important life-skills we all need to learn in life is how to resolve conflict & restore or reconcile broken relationships — this is HUGE! We were never taught this in high school or college, and there’s a good chance not at home either, because your parents weren’t taught it. If we don’t learn these skills we are setting ourselves up for a far less than abundant life, marriage, parenting, etc.

Bring your Bibles this Sunday and let’s begin this exciting journey together on how to resolve conflict God’s way! I hope to save you thousands of dollars in counseling ;-)

This Sunday I am so excited to have you hear from Kevin & Ashley Hernandez, a family Mosaic supports in Guatemala. We had the chance to hear their hearts this past Monday at an event, and they had us all in tears as they shared all that God is doing through them as they live on mission.

You will be moved, motivated, and totally inspired this Sunday as you hear Kevin & Ashley’s story.

We've spoken a lot in recent weeks about becoming a "missional" church, and our prospective move downtown sometime in early December, if the Lord wills it, is so we can fully realize that objective. But what does being "missional" mean?

We will get into the definition of the term - I'm a professor, after all, and that's what we do! But I propose to you that we are already doing "missional" work, and you can get involved right now, before we hang our shingle downtown.

Join us on Sunday to find out what we do and how you can join us!

This Sunday is a very important Sunday at Mosaic as it could determine the direction of the church for the next several years. If you consider Mosaic your church and Ron and I your spiritual covering, then we are kindly requesting your presence this Sunday.

Did you know that the words “I am” are recorded in the bible over 600 times! Wow! When something is recorded that many times in God’s Word we’re best to pay attention to it.

Did you also realize that if God says, “I am” that many times, it also says something about us because we are made “in the image of God.” In other words, when God says, “I am” he is also saying, “You Are.”

I hope you’ll join us this Sunday as we not only look at who God says He is, but who he says We Are as well. Knowing this is an important subject to Jon Robertson, I have asked him to teach on and address this very important topic this week. Come out and support Jon and hear his heart, and God’s heart on this matter.

When you watch the news or scan your social media feed, have you ever felt like we are standing on shaky ground? Are you going through transitions and changes in your life, individually or collectively as a family, a workplace, a church community, a nation, a world? Humans don't deal with change and disorder very well, but it seems that's all we've got these days. Where is our anchor, our firm foundation on which to stand?

As Christians, we should know the answer to that question, but knowing it in our heads isn't the same as feeling it in our souls and putting it into practice in our daily walk through this world. As our church approaches a season of transition and change, this might be a good time for us to reach into the Bible, our toolkit for life, and extract what we need to put the seemingly constant churn and instability of life into perspective.

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is credited with the quote, “change is the only constant in life.” My hope and prayer is that, after we've shared God's Word together, you can say with confidence that change isn't the only constant in life. Jesus is constant, and He is Lord over all things, including the changes in our lives.

Now that we have finished our road trip through the Bible I would like to take a few minutes this Sunday and review some of the main points we covered so you can see in one setting how all the thematic pieces fit together as a whole.

I would also like to take a few minutes at the end of service this week to bring everyone up to speed on where we’re at in the negotiations with the Downtown Y and a possible location for our offices/mid-week meeting place.