Illumine Church

Listen in on this wide-ranging conversational study of John 1:43-51 with Pastor Nathan & Pastor Josh.

Why is Jesus called the "Word" of God and the "Lamb" of God? Pastors Josh Schultz of Mountain View in Great Falls, MT, and Nathan Loersch of Illumine in Rock Hill, SC, discuss the beginning of the Gospel of John.

A roundtable discussion on Isaiah 11, a prophecy all about Jesus. Enjoy listening in!

And if God brings good out of "bad"...was it really bad at all? This sermon on Isaiah 11:1-10 was preached December 13th, 2020, at Illumine, Rock Hill

Today Pastors Nathan, Matt, & Josh dive in to the goodness that is Isaiah 40.

Is it okay to cry out, “God, do something!” Is it possible to lament too much? What should we actually lament, and is there anything we shouldn’t lament? Listen in on 3 pastors discussing these questions & more, in the context of Isaiah 64.

Having a debt is not something anyone wants. Having a debt you can't pay is worse. Being owned by someone else because you can't pay your debt is the worst of all. But Jesus paid the debt we owe; in fact, he bought us. So now we belong to him, which is the best status we can have. For that, a new & different sacrifice was necessary. A new replacement. And then one appeared. But today, judgment its...

Sacrifice is defined: the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else seen as more important or worthy. The people of Israel, throughout most of the 1st half of the Bible, knew this concept most intimately. Daily they made sacrifices, in order to remedy their sins. Sure, they gave up animals, but it was worth it, to have good standing with God. But, these sacrifices could not...

Sorrow can cause despair. Sorrow can cause us to lose hope. Sorrow can cause us to say, "Who cares?" Sorrow can cause us to try to forget about the sorrow -- and say that sorrow itself is a thing to be avoided. But none of that is godly sorrow. Tonight we live in good, godly sorrow.

A "Fixer" is someone who makes a situation right. Who takes something bad and makes it good. In our day and age, there's usually a violent, shady, or negative connotation involved with using or being a fixer. And we usually think of judgment with a violent, shady, or negative connotation. But today, judgment itself is the fixer--it takes the bad and makes it good!

While you probably think of a courtroom and a black robe when you think of judgment, if you can transport your thinking to a county fair or the cooking channel, you might start thinking of someone sitting down to test and rate a dish - a judge of whether or not something is good, tasteful, and of a certain quality. God encourages this - not with food, but as you experience the world, different mes...

One of the most common words in the Hebrew Old Testament for judgment has to do with the law, judge-pronouncing-judgment, and courtroom - which is probably the most common way we talk about judgment today in English, too. The image of a "justice system" working to uphold the laws is powerful, and the idea of God as that kind of neutral, objective, cold/stern/righteous judge is a common idea. The g...

That is the question, isn't it? And an answer is: ";Don't judge." or "Don't judge me." or"Don't be judge-y." But if that's our answer, it is incomplete. Because the Bible says more. Today, we find out what comes after, "Don't judge."

"I got this." ...is a phrase that may be true, but may not be best. In our world, and especially in our American culture, we value individualism. We may think we should be able to stand all on our own. We may think that just doing things ourselves is the easiest, most efficient way to do things. We may be anxious about opening ourselves up to dependence on others. We may be anxious that if we do o...

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array." God created everything, including humanity and nature, in a way that was perfect. Today we see how humans depend on the nature God created, how nature depends on us, and the attitude we ought to have towards all of God's creation.

Because God is God, and we are not, it’s somewhat simple to understand that God designed us to depend on him (though we frankly quite often don’t think and act that way in our everyday lives). But what’s harder to grasp is how God designed us in such a way that he depends on us. And yet all at the same time, we depend on him. Back and forth. Interdependence.

Interdependence is the proper posture in which to live, and has inherent value, for 2 reasons: it’s the way God is, and it’s the way he designed us.