Twenty-Somethings

Is authority good or bad in a fallen world? How do we make sense of pastors and leaders who abuse their authority? How do we navigate abusive authority? How do we find solace in the midst of abuse? Listen in as Caleb Eissler answers these questions and more as we look at the last words of David in 2 Samuel 23:1-4. 

How do you find out who you are? What is your identity? What does the world say versus what the Word says? Listen in as Caleb Eissler answers these questions and more during week 2 of our series on deconstruction called Resilient. This week we're spending time in Colossians 3:1-17. 

*Originally Preached on Thursday, July 28th, 2022 for Twenty-Somethings*

What is Deconstruction? How do we navigate faith in a world of church hurt and abuse? How do we make sense of Christ when Christians around us put politics, notoriety, and other things before Him? Listen in as Caleb Eissler kicks off our 4-week series called "Resilient" on navigating faith in our day. This week's message asks tough questions and takes us to 1 Corinthians 15 to look at the core of what we actually believe.

*Originally preached on Thursday, July 21st, 2022*

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God ​— ​God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. -- 1 John 4:1-21 (CSB)

3 See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins,, and there is no sin in him. 6 Everyone who remains in him does not sin;, everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.

LOVE IN ACTION

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.

21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.

If you thought you were about to die, what would be the final message you would want to tell your loved ones? We address that question and more in this message. Listen in as Caleb Eissler kicks off our series in 1 John and explains the weight and beauty of John's message in 1 John 1. 

*Originally preached on Thursday, June 2nd, 2022 at Twenty-Somethings*

For years, churches across denominations and ages have delivered pastoral prayers to ask for God's help and love in the wake of issues facing the world and the church. Twenty-Somethings has delivered pastoral prayers in response to important occasions over the years. In light of recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde (among many others) and the recent report surrounding the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) sex abuse scandal, Caleb Eissler delivered a pastoral prayer to address these tragic issues.

*Originally delivered on Thursday, June 2nd, 2022 at Twenty-Somethings*

THE GREAT COMMISSION

16 The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. 18 Jesus came near and said to them,“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -- Matthew 28:16-20 (CSB)

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work ​— ​you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy. -- Exodus 20:8-11 (CSB)

Psalm 42

LONGING FOR GOD

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.

1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so I long for you, God.

2 I thirst for God, the living God.

When can I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

while all day long people say to me,

“Where is your God?”

4 I remember this as I pour out my heart:

how I walked with many,

leading the festive procession to the house of God,

with joyful and thankful shouts.

5 Why, my soul, are you so dejected?

Why are you in such turmoil?

Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,

my Savior and my God.

6 I am deeply depressed;

therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan

and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.

8 The Lord will send his faithful love by day;

his song will be with me in the night—

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will say to God, my rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about in sorrow

because of the enemy’s oppression?”

10 My adversaries taunt me,

as if crushing my bones,

while all day long they say to me,

“Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you so dejected?

Why are you in such turmoil?

Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,

my Savior and my God.