The Summit STL

Submission might be the one word American culture hates most. But in 1 Peter 2:13-17, Peter calls us to submit to human authority, not because the leaders are worthy, but because Jesus modeled it first and calls us to do the same. Tim Gray walks through what biblical submission actually looks like, what it does not look like, and how honoring authority and resisting evil can both be true at the same time. Freedom and submission are not opposites. In Christ, they are the same thing.

Peter calls us sojourners and exiles, and that identity changes everything. In this message from 1 Peter 2:11-12, Tim Gray walks through what it looks like to live as people who know this world is not their home. That means running from the passions of the flesh, not just the obvious ones, but the culturally acceptable idols of comfort, consumerism, distraction, and "Midwest Nice." Our time here is temporary, and our conduct among not-yet-believers matters more than we think. The goal is a holy life that points others to Christ, because that's what exiles are here to do.

The Story of God reveals that Jesus is the hero of making his people holy,
and the Gospel of Jesus Christ creates a spiritual house and a spiritual people.

Salvation brings out an incredible love for the family of God and an incredible love for the Word. Love for the family will not happen without a purified soul, a sincere heart, a new birth, and the Word working deeply.

God’s initiation of our salvation calls us to respond with strong identities. God uses these identities to sustain us in times of trial. We are hopeful in Jesus, called to holiness, and to conduct ourselves accordingly.

Your union with Christ will provide all that you need for both life and death, and your identity in Christ is formed through holiness. When you put your faith in Christ alone, you are assured of your salvation into an eternal kingdom!

The early church didn't go on mission because things were going well — they went because they got scattered. Persecuted, uprooted, and displaced, ordinary Spirit-filled believers went about preaching the word anyway. The result? Much joy in that city.
Mission isn't a program or a special calling. If Christ is in you, going is just who you are. So what's stopping us — and what could our city look like if we actually showed up?

Stephen reminds us that accountability is formed in community, and our response to it is telling. Rejecting God makes us less human, but when our eyes are fixed on Christ, we can receive correction that leads to repentance. Dying like Christ, suffering like Christ, is a means to spreading the Good News.

In Acts 7, Stephen reminds the leaders that Jesus was a greater prophet and deliverer than the fathers of our faith. But in the same way that many in the Old Testament couldn’t see past what was in front of them, Stephen addresses the Jewish audience with reproof. In what ways might we reject the Jesus who came to save, the way the leaders of Stephen’s day did?

Though we can be easily divided by partiality in daily life and within the church, the book of Acts gives us direction for overcoming it and moving forward. Clear instructions are given to the early church to appoint people of integrity to complete various tasks that would allow others to continue to preach the Word. Today, we are called into the same service, none of which is too small.