God has not only loved us, chosen us, adopted us, redeemed us and lavished His kindness on us, but He has also given us wisdom and understanding. Scripture makes great promises to those who live with wisdom and understanding. How do these change the way we view sin and approach life and how do we experience them?

What does it mean that we have been redeemed? Why did we need to be redeemed? What have we been redeemed from and on what basis? In what ways can we sin less and live better in light of redemption?

One of the most basic human needs is the need to belong. One of the greatest results of sin is that it destroys right places and senses of belonging and creates abandonment. God’s answer to humanity’s broken experience of ultimate belonging is predestination and adoption.

For many of us, experiences of rejection are what mostly shape our sense of identity. Those moments we’ve all had of being skipped over, left out, unwanted and not chosen. These negative episodes not only inform the way we feel about ourselves, but the way we think about God and how we act with and toward others. In this sermon we learn that what is actually most true about us is that we are loved and chosen by God in Christ, and that these glorious truths create for us a new identity and a better way to live toward God and in the world.

Why is it that we seem to have the most difficult time being content? Is everyone like this? Is this the way we are supposed to be? What is the remedy? Ephesians 1:3 helps us learn about our source of contentment and how to think and feel rightly about our identity in Christ.

In this passage Paul wishes us grace and peace. What does it mean for the Christian to have grace and peace when we seem so unworthy and unsettled? Is it right to feel unworthy? What is meant here by peace since conflict is common to life? In this sermon we learn what grace frees us from and enables us to do and how peace is actually wholeness.

Scripture says that every Christian is holy, or a saint. If we were to be honest, most would agree that we usually see ourselves as anything but holy. In actuality, we feel more dirty than holy. More like scums than saints! And yet, we are called holy saints. What does this mean? How can we be holy if we feel so dirty? And if it is true that we are holy, how does this affect the way we think and feel about God and ourselves? And how do we go about living holy lives?

This message was given on the first Sunday at the Santa Barbara Campus. What does it mean to be a Gospel formed community (the Church) that gathers together for worship and scatters into the world for mission? The Church should be Christocentric, celebrative, repentant, accepting, forgiving, generous, prayerful and on mission.