West Church Peabody

In Sunday's passage, we will see Paul encouraging the church in Philippi to live their lives for and with each other. Contrary to what our culture tells us, there are no self-sufficient human beings, and certainly no self-sufficient Christians. We will see that a life lived for others is truly the best life we can live- one marked by unity, humility, and generosity.

In our series "Your Best Life Ever Now" we look at another transformative life perspective from Paul: You are a worthy Citizen of God's Kingdom. We belong to something that God is doing in the world right now to make us ready for the next. What God is doing now is transformative, redemptive and lasting. He tells us 4 things citizens of the kingdom do and he shows us how and why they do them. Come and belong to the Kingdom this Sunday

We continue in our series "Your Best Life Ever Now." Here we see that Paul has a completely new center to universe of his life. This new center changes everything for him. "To live is Christ." Christ is his life. Religion was not his life. Ministry was not his life. Success was not his life. Freedom was not his life. Christ was his life. Jesus was the sun of Paul's solar system. Everything revolved around Jesus. This new center gave him purpose, relationships and hope. Is Christ your center? How does he change these things for you?

Have you ever doubted that you had anything to offer God? You look at others who seem so "gifted" and think, I could never be like that. Or perhaps circumstances have changed for you and you aren't as available to do the things you used to do for God. Or perhaps you feel like a spiritual novice. You don't feel like your life is kind of messy and you feel like all the people around you at church have it "all together." I suspect Paul may have had those feelings, having been a zealous missionary who was now rotting in prison for several years. However, he also discovered something else while there: I am still useful to God. Knowing that lifted his spirits and even brought him joy. Please join us Sunday for our second in our teaching series, "Your Best Life Ever Now."

This week we begin an all new series entitled "Your Best Life Ever Now' through the book of Philippians. Have you ever been in a really negative situation in which, no matter how much you wanted out, no matter how hard you tried, there was almost nothing you could do? If you are in a situation like that, I empathize with you. If you remember one, you're probably happy it's passed. We want out of those situations ASAP and hope never to go back again. Paul was in one of those situations. He was in a Roman prison awaiting trial. While there he wrote a letter to the church he started in the city of Philippi. He was stuck there and there was little he could do about it. But it happens to be one of the most positive letters of all the ones that we have. Paul is encouraged, he is strong, he is confident, he is hopeful. How is it possible to live a positive life in the most negative of circumstances? If that makes you curious, let's try to learn together how he did it beginning this Sunday.

This Sunday will be the first of the 2025 Missions Conference. The order of service will be familiar, but we will have guests from the Gideons sharing during the sermon time and a Missions Flash from one of our other partners before we pray. In addition, there are a variety of fun events planned throughout the week.

This Sunday join us today as Patrick talks about Between Two Kingdom

This Sunday we conclude our series "Living In God's World, Even When It's Hard." Daniel's final vision takes us to the end, the very end of time. God wants people to know that he has it all sewn up. He has his people to the very end. The only thing we need to do is endure, to hang on. We endure by trusting that our Redeemer is able to redeem us to the very end. And the ending is great—resurrection. The resurrection of the righteous in to bright and glorious light after all that they have been through. The resurrection of the wicked to final judgement and the pure justice of God on those who resist and oppose him. Our story has an incredible ending. We just have to keep reading, living, walking, praying, believing. The ending is God himself forever, the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for.

As we near the end of our series "Living in God's World, Even When It's Hard" I would like you to consider this question, "Have you ever worked for a great boss? And what made them great?" A boss is a person who has authority, they are the boss. But a great boss uses that authority in a way that benefits the employees, benefits the company and benefits the customer or the community. They use authority well. This Sunday's reading is about power in the world. The nations that would arise after Daniel would wield great power. They would battle back and forth to gain it or to keep it. The passage is about how power is wielded in the world. The people of God often find themselves subject to powers that purpose to harm them. They are often at the short end of the stick. God warned us that this would happen. As believers in Jesus we often talk about the power of Jesus in our lives. Power is not evil in and of itself, but it is the people who have it and what they do with it that is the problem. How does know Jesus as our Savior and Lord change the way we view and exercise authority? Let's think about that together.

We are counting down to the finish in our series, "Living in God's World, Even When It's Hard." Daniel 10 is the prelude to Daniel's final vision in 11-12. We find Daniel spiritually hungry and weakened in body and spirit. Messengers come to strengthen and encourage him. God actually wants to strengthen us and help us when we come to him in weakness and longing for him. God's presence is so breathtaking, we need grace to even receive it. It is also revealed to Daniel that the battle that he has been living first in Babylonian empire, now in the Persian Empire is also a cosmic spiritual battle between heaven and the powers of darkness. We tend to see our struggles in life only from a limited, human perspective. The Bible informs us that there is a cosmic spiritual struggle going on both within ourselves and within the heavens and the earth. We need strength beyond ourself to engage. Our God is with us.